Chapter 13: Imperatives of Inclusive Policies on Growth and Challenges of the Fashion Industry in Sub-Saharan Africa

By the end of this chapter you should be able to demonstrate an understanding of:

The potential of Africa’s fashion industry in terms of size, value, and contributions to economic growth and empowerment is well documented. With increasing revenue from apparel and cotton exports, an increasing number of fashion design hubs and a consumer base of about 1.2 billion, the fashion industry is Sub-Saharan Africa’s (SSA) second-largest employer of labour after agriculture, with enormous potential to compete globally (Botti, 2019). Accordingly, several intervention measures have been implemented to drive sustainable growth by integrating Africa’s fashion market within the global fashion economy (Wale-Oshinowo, Lebura, Yacoub, & Alexandre-Leclair, 2019). The African Development Bank (AfDB) estimate the value of SSA’s fashion sector at $31 billion out of a global market share of $2 trillion in 2020. However, even though the region has long been a top destination for fabric procurement and textile exports by global fashion companies, it is generally regarded as operating on the margins of the global fashion economy (Amankwah-Amoah, 2018; Hannel, 2019; Wood & Bischoff, 2019).