Actress, Martha Ankomah, has lamented the influx of second-hand clothing popularly known as ‘obroni we wu’ [the white person has died] on Ghanaian and other African countries' markets.

In an interview with BBC Africa, Martha Ankomah advocated for the wearing of local fabrics to represent the African continent.

She stated that there was no point in wearing clothes which does not enable Africans to represent their continent.

“I believe so much in our local textiles. I believe that it’s possible for us to wear Made in Ghana throughout the whole year. There is no point for us wearing other fabrics from other continents. We are Africans and we are supposed to represent our continent well,” she said.

Asked how Africa should deal with Europe making the continent a dumping ground for fast fashion, the brand ambassador for West Africa’s Leading print and Textiles Brand – GTP proposed a ban on the import of the product.

According to her, the ban will contribute to reviving the fashion industry within countries in Africa while additionally creating employment opportunities for the youth.

She also noted that the African fabric has over the years proven to be a very beautiful and good fabric.

She suggested that a ban on the importation of second-hand clothing will enable people to realise the importance of wearing African fabric.

“If only we can ban [second-hand clothing]. Trust me it’s possible because the African fabric is actually a good fabric. You can see what I’m wearing.

“This is called Adepa and this is one of our latest prints we just printed out not too long ago; the fabric is beautiful, you can see it for yourself. For us in Ghana here we believe that what we do creates a lot of jobs for people.

“Now people are getting into fashion. The fashion industry is becoming big worldwide. Everybody wants to look good. So why not for us to support our own by letting the government come in to support the industry too as well because that also creates jobs for people.

“Then people can get more jobs to do then the youth know that what we do and wear here create jobs and they can actually use that to transform their lives.

“But what we do is we keep bringing clothes from other continents…most of it is second-hand clothing and it is not good for our health in the first place. It also doesn’t support the economy in Africa,” Martha Ankomah argued.

She further called for taxes on clothes and fabrics to be cut to make them affordable and rope in investments into the sector while additionally setting up industries to create jobs.