Smock weaving industry and employment generation: A community development approach

The 2022 World Cup, held in Doha, Qatar, allowed the Ghanaian team and its supporters to showcase Ghanaian culture. It gave a boost to a smock-weaving industry previously popularized by the late Ghanaian President, J. J. Rawlings. The smock, woven in Northern Ghana, has become a customary garment for funerals, weddings, and other social events. The contributions of the smock industry to the employment generation of young adults in Ghana are remarkable. The smock value chain offers numerous job opportunities for young adults, yet few studies have examined entrepreneurial opportunities for young adults in the smock industry. This paper explores the entrepreneurial opportunities in the smock value chain. In-depth interviews were conducted with weavers, apprentices, sewers/designers, marketers, users, and staff of the Center for National Culture and a Civil Society Organization. The findings show that the smock industry employs many people because of its labor-intensive nature. Many young people use social media to sell smocks and smock fabric to make additional income and create more value for the weavers and designers. The value that the end users get from smocks is invaluable, as it is intricately linked to their culture and sense of identity. The Government of Ghana and development partners must, via policy initiatives, support the smock industry to engender optimal operational efficiency, because the smock industry has wider implications for employment generation and community development in Ghana.