Imran Amed, the founder of The Business of Fashion, has revealed Ghana’s Kantamanto Market in Accra is the world’s largest second-hand clothing hub.
According to Imran Amed, Kantamanto Market receives a staggering 15 million second-hand garments weekly.
He revealed that the 15 million garments arrive from the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other parts of the world.
Imran Amed further highlighted that 40 per cent of those clothes are so poor quality that they cannot be sold.
Speaking at an event, the founder of The Business of Fashion stated, “I want to take you to a place that I think is one of the most important places in the world for the fashion industry. It’s called Kantamanto Market, and it’s in the heart of Accra. And it is the world’s largest hub for second-hand clothing. The scale is staggering.
Every week, 15 million garments arrive in this market from the United States, from the United Kingdom, from Europe, from all over the world. And this is where they are sorted, and they are sold, and they are re-worn.
But here’s the thing: 40 per cent of those clothes are so bad quality that they cannot be sold. So they are dumped, and they are burned. And this is creating an enormous environmental and social crisis right here in Ghana”.
Co-Founder/ Director of the OR Foundation, Liz Ricketts, also noted that there is a human impact which extends to the people who carry the burden of the broken business model.
She explained, “The retailers who buy these bales of clothes pay between $200 and $700 for a bale, and they often go into debt to do so. And then, when they can’t sell the clothes, they are in debt. And then you have the young women, the kayayei, who are porters”.
They carry 30 to 55 kilograms on their heads for 10 trips a day, because they earn less money. After two months of doing this, there is irreversible harm to their spinal column, and it impacts their ability to have children and can be fatal.
Eventually their necks can break under the weight if this bales, this year alone we know three women who have died in the market”.
Meanwhile, a raging fire swept through the Kantamanto Market early this year, reducing the sprawling hub of the country’s informal economy to ashes.
“The fire, which erupted late on Wednesday, consumed vast sections of the largest used clothes market in the West African country, displacing thousands of traders, disaster officials said.
The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) deployed 13 fire tenders to put out the flames. But on Thursday morning, ruins smouldered where rows of stalls once bustled with activities.
Goods worth millions of the local cedi currency have been destroyed”.
Watch the video below:
Kantamanto are you aware you are leading the world in second clothing 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/UlQDGoG1la
— Yawa (@DontdoYawa) November 24, 2025