Barbara Oteng-Gyasi, Tourism Minister
This year’s edition of the annual Wear Ghana Festival being organized to promote local textiles as well as the fashion industry has been launched in Accra.
The festival, which was initiated two years ago, was also aimed at creating employment for the youth in fashion and dress making.
Organized by the National Commission on Culture (NCC), in partnership with Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), Ghana Textile Production (GTP) and Street Fashion Train, the festival is on the theme, “Hy3 Wode3, Wear Your Own”.
Speaking at the launch, Madam Janet Edna Nyame, Executive Director of the NCC, said her outfit as a cultural institution was mandated to promote and ensure the growth and development of Ghanaian culture and make them more relevant to our development, and it was based on this that the commission introduced the Wear Ghana festival.
The executive director encouraged institutions to adopt local fabric designs and patterns in their regalia, uniforms and paraphernalia.
She said, “The greatest attraction of a group of people is what they wear; which means we can show ourselves to the world by what we wear and our infectious Akwaaba smile.”
The executive director said the Wear Ghana Festival had come to stay and it was their intention to replicate it in all 16 regional centres and with proper package as cultural goods, they would be able to attract tourists and corporate entities for sponsorship.
She commended the President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, for always appearing in his stylish local fabric shirts as well as some ministers and parliamentarians who patronized the local fabric.
Madam Roberta Dawson Amoah, Marketing Manager of the GTA, delivering her speech on behalf of Mr. Akwesi Agyemang, Chief Executive Officer of GTA, stressed the need to put Ghana on the world map through fashion as part of the “Eat Ghana, Wear Ghana, See Ghana and Feel Ghana” campaign initiated back in 2017.
She urged fashion stakeholders to take advantage of the festival to showcase our beautiful fabric to sell Ghana to the world.
Some of the activities lined up for the festival include a float on principal streets of Accra; a Fashion Night to be staged at the National Theatre, among others.