The National Commission on Culture (NCC), has launched the “Wear Ghana Festival” for the year 2021 to promote national identity and encourage patronage of local fabrics.

The Festival will take place virtually this year, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with activities including a virtual online fashion show, a spoken word show, teaching the appropriate way of wearing the men's cloth, and media interviews with key stakeholders.

Madam Janet Edna Nyame, Executive Director, NCC, launching the Festival, said the “wear Ghana” initiative was part of the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture’s “Wear Ghana, See Ghana, Feel Ghana and Eat Ghana” agenda, instituted four years ago.

She said the Commission took the “Wear Ghana” aspect to promote Ghanaian clothing through the festive celebration by fashion shows every year.

Madam Nyame said the Commission in collaboration with Ghana Textiles Printing Company Limited (GTP), Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), and National Theatre, took the initiative of the “wear Ghana” festival to organise a fashion show in March every year.

She said the show aimed at promoting the Country’s local fabrics, unearth the talents of young ones, and also create employment for the youth who were into fashion and dressmaking.

Madam Nyame said designers for this year’s celebration were to use local fabrics to design various outfits that could be worn both locally and at international programmes outside Ghana for the international communities to appreciate what Ghana had.

She urged Ghanaians to patronise colourful local fabrics and advocated for a law to encourage the usage of Ghanaian/traditional fabrics to all, State and international functions to promote the Ghanaian culture and identity.

Madam Nyame said this year’s fashion show would last for four weeks with designers rolling out traditional exotic designs with their models on various social media handles of the Commission.

Prof Fredrick Owusu Nyarko, Ambassador, Culture Ghana and Beyond, said they would be visiting institutions to take photographs of individuals who were wearing local prints.

He said the pictures would be loaded on the Commission's social media handles for people to vote for the best and that winners would have media exposure to encourage more people to wear made-in Ghana products.

Professor Nyarko said they intended to engage radio and television stations to propagate the “Wear Ghana” message.