The Upper West Regional Chief of Smock Designers and Weavers, Abdul Rahman Jimba, has appealed to the government to establish a weaving village to serve the interests of all the stakeholders.

He said such a village would have all the players in the value chain of the weaving industry and serve the needs of all the players.

Aside from ensuring that clients get whatever they need at one place, he said it could also serve as a tourist attraction for the region and the country and help earn some foreign exchange for the government.

Currently, he said they were all scattered all over the region with no permanent place, resulting in some of them getting kicked out by the landowners.

Challenge

In an interview with the Daily Graphic, Naa Jimba said because they were scattered, people found it difficult to locate some of them, especially when they needed a particular item that was not available.

However, he believed that if the government built such a village for them, it would be easier for people to find whatever they needed at one place.

Besides that, he said it would also provide a permanent place for them to ply their trade and not be bothered about being evicted by landlords.

He said one of the challenges facing the weavers and smock designers was the security of their tenancy.

“You will rent a place for your business and within a short time, the owner will come back asking for the place,” he said.

That, for him, had been one of the challenges of the sector and leading to weavers and smock producers losing their customers.

Naa Jimba therefore reiterated the call on the government to support them to acquire land that could be developed into a smock village, where “everything pertaining to weaving and smocks could be found.”