Economists have long argued that the route to prosperity for Africa must involve building a thriving textiles industry. Indeed, Africa has a clear blueprint from south and east Asia that it can follow in using garment manufacturing as a way to create jobs and stimulate industrial growth.
Several African countries have already been relatively successful in establishing themselves as players in the global textile manufacturing industry. Notably, the likes of Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar and Mauritius have used preferential trade arrangements under the US African Growth and Opportunity Act to become significant garment exporters.
And Africa has a key advantage, in that large parts of the continent have a suitable climate for growing cotton, the key raw material that goes into the t-shirts, jeans and jackets worn around the world. Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali are the top African producers, but the 'white gold' is grown in a total of 37 African countries, meaning Africa has more cotton-growing countries than any other continent.
However, there are ominous signs that Africa's cotton and textiles ambitions could come unstitched as a result of climate change. Increasingly frequent and severe droughts are making it more difficult to grow cotton across several of Africa's leading producer countries. Togo, for example, suffered a 66% decline in production between 2019 and 2023, largely due to erratic weather and pest outbreaks.
Originally published by African Business.