Mr. Moses Akrofi, Head of Textiles Department of the Takoradi Polytechnic, on Friday urged government to motivate local textile industries through tax waivers, micro financing and good policies to enhance the growth of the sector.

He said there was the need to encourage research into the local textile industry to bring it up to standard, adding, “The small-medium scale industry lacks requisite expertise in the production of quality Ghanaian textile products”.

Mr. Akrofi said this at the fourth annual Textile Students Association and Department of Textiles and Technology Week Celebration of the Takoradi Polytechnic at Takoradi.

He said studies conducted by the department revealed that about 90% of the graduates had diverted into business whiles the remaining 10% were in either small or medium factories producing textile products.

“This has come about as a result of the current decline in textiles production in Ghana, alongside the difficulty in starting up businesses on their own as it is quite expensive,” he added.

Mr. Akrofi said the industry had also suffered setbacks due to the influx of foreign textiles and some policies which were hampering “the image of our locally produced ones” and called for research, advocacy and proper marketing of the industry.

He said collaboration with academia and research institutions would yield high patronage of these products.

The Department would engage in outreach programmes to raise awareness as well as promote issues related to the Ghanaian Textile Industry, he said.**