USAID in collaboration with Ethical Apparel Africa (EAA) and AGAM organized the launch of the USAID Regional Apparel Manufacturing and Export Cluster Program on Wednesday,16th October, 2024 at Kempinski Hotel, Accra which is a Gender Equity and Equality Action (GEEA) funded activity.
The program saw in attendance the USAID West Africa Mission Director, Jo Lesser-Oltheten, USAID Africa Trade and Investment Activity West Africa Regional Director, Allan Pineda, CEO and Co-founder of EAA, Keren Pybus, representatives from Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI), Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA), Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), GIZ, JET/Palladium, other partners and AGAM members.
The program activity will leverage lessons learned to accelerate the capabilities of nine (9) apparel manufacturers mostly women-owned in Benin, Ghana, and Togo through factory training, market linkage facilitation via AGOA, finance facilitation, and export capacity development to meet demand from particularly US buyers.
This program aims to increase apparel exports from West Africa under AGOA, create 500 full-time jobs of which 70% will be women, establish and scale best practices for worker well being and gender equity in West African garment factories, and support local SMEs.
After the launch, there was a workshop on Post Trade Show (Potential) Customer Management for AGAM members facilitated by EAA.
