The chairperson of one of the weavers associations in the Upper East Region, Patience Atinga, has expressed concern over the escalating prices of threads and other essential materials used in fabric weaving.
During a recent interview on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show with Mark Smith, Madam Atinga highlighted that due to the high initial investment required to establish a weaving business, numerous successful apprentices are opting to migrate to Kumasi and Accra to pursue head-porting instead.
Madam Atinga further explained that some of the arrangements made by certain weaver associations in the region have compounded the challenges faced by young women in particular.
“Some of the ladies, their parents, or their husbands would say that, I have taken care of you, so I am done. Instead of helping, backing them up, and getting them some capital to start their businesses, they won’t do it. When they finish their apprenticeship, they tell them to start a business, but how do they expect the ladies to start their businesses?”
“For others, their husbands would say, now that you have finished learning work, I have taken care of you for 3 good years, so when you are weaving, I will be taking care of food and you will be taking care of other things. But how can the person survive? The person cannot survive. Sometimes you have about 200 girls graduating from weaving, but at the end of the day, you have only about 20 women sitting to do the weaving. Most of them would go to Accra or Kumasi and carry things,” she said.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
