Fashion Must Become a Pillar of Ghana's Creative Economy – Gomashie

Ghana's fashion industry contributed approximately US$2.42 billion to the national economy in 2025—roughly three per cent of GDP—and formally employed over 25,000 people while supporting more than 100,000 others in the informal economy, according to figures from the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts . Yet the Minister, Hon. Abla Dzifa Gomashie, argues that the sector's potential remains far from fully realised.

Speaking at the 2026 Black Star Fashion Summit at the Mövenpick Ambassador Hotel in Accra on Wednesday, Gomashie called for fashion to be recognised as a "strategic pillar of the country's creative economy," stressing its power to create jobs, draw investment and boost exports .

Beyond the Runway

The Minister pointed to Ghana's cultural assets—Kente, Fugu, Adinkra symbols, beadwork and embroidery—as a foundation for innovation, while urging stakeholders to look beyond the spectacle of fashion shows. "With deliberate investment, improved production capacity and market access," she said, "the industry could create thousands of jobs, particularly for our young people" .

Gomashie's vision extends to the tourism sector, where she sees fashion as an untapped draw. "We must therefore deliberately integrate fashion into Ghana's tourism offerings," she said. "Our fashion weeks, textile exhibitions, cultural festivals, heritage tours, creative markets and fashion showcases should become important features of our national tourism calendar" .

Through initiatives such as the Black Star Experience, she added, Ghana has an opportunity to position itself as "a vibrant, year-round destination for culture, entertainment, fashion, music, heritage and creative enterprise" .

A Week of Consequence

The 2026 Black Star Fashion Week, the brainchild of the Rex Omar-led Black Star Experience, is running under the theme "Put Fashion On." Organisers describe the initiative as a call to "name the names by recognising and crediting the designers, stylists, artisans and makers behind what we wear; to back what we love by buying, stocking, commissioning, funding and creating opportunities for Ghanaian fashion; and to show it off by taking Ghanaian fashion into our offices, schools, sports, music, retail, travel and onto the global cultural stage" .

The festival climaxes on November 7 at the Royal Senchi Hotel in Akosombo with the "Presidential Runway" fashion show, an event expected to draw national attention to the sector's ambitions .

The Intellectual Property Question

The summit also surfaced a persistent concern: the protection of Ghana's cultural heritage in an increasingly commercialised global fashion market. A panel discussion themed "How Do We Put Ghana On? Kente, Culture and the Power of Our Story" brought together historian Osei Bonsu Sarfo Kantanka, Dr Courage Besah-Adanu of the Ghana Industrial Property Office, Advertising Association President Andrew Ackah, and Creative Arts Council Secretary Gideon Aryeetey .

Dr Besah-Adanu described Kente as a communal cultural asset requiring deliberate protection through legal frameworks, regulations and national investment. He cited geographical indications as an important intellectual property tool for protecting products whose qualities are linked to specific origins, and urged stakeholders to safeguard both tangible and intangible elements of their products .

Aryeetey acknowledged that limited confidence in promoting local work remained a challenge, and outlined plans for the Creative Arts Agency to introduce a registration and licensing framework for creative enterprises—an initiative intended to strengthen regulation, improve data collection and support enforcement of laws protecting businesses .

Background: From Decline to Revival

Ghana's garment and textile industry carries the weight of a complicated history. In the 1970s, the sector employed around 25,000 people and printed 129 million yards of fabric annually. By 2005, employment had collapsed to fewer than 3,000 and production to 39 million yards, as cheap imports—particularly from Asia—flooded the domestic market . The industry's contribution to GDP fell from 6.5 per cent in the 1970s to just under one per cent .

The current recovery, however, is tangible. Government plans aim to scale the garment sector from an estimated US2 billion by 2033, creating approximately 150,000 jobs and expanding cotton cultivation across more than 50,000 hectares . Under the 24-Hour Economy Policy, three new garment factories are planned in the Central, Bono East and Eastern regions, projected to generate around 27,000 direct jobs . Ghana also enjoys duty-free access to the European Union under the Interim Economic Partnership Agreement and to the United States through AGOA, advantages that position it as a potential regional manufacturing hub .

For Gomashie, the task now is to convert these plans into visible, commercially viable outcomes. The Black Star Fashion Week, with its summit, masterclasses, exhibitions and Presidential Runway, represents a test of whether Ghana's fashion sector can move from cultural showcase to economic driver—and whether the US$2.42 billion figure becomes a baseline rather than a ceiling.