Meet the Innovators of Kantamanto Market

Among this year’s cohort are Ruth Odoom and Samuel Gyasi. Odoom started working in the market at 17, and spent the last 13 years upcycling men’s shirts into boxer shorts, a common upcycle at Kantamanto. Through OWO School, she has learnt pattern-making (she used to cut freehand, leading to more waste) and has improved the finishing on her products, adding a matching bralette for women. Previously, she charged just GHS 6 per pair of boxer shorts (around 50 cents in USD). Now, she can charge up to GHS 250 ($22) for a matching set.

Gyasi was introduced to Kantamanto by a friend, about a year before he started the OWO School program. He started working with denim, but has since shifted to leather, making patchwork bags and jackets from damaged goods sold in the market. Alongside OWO School, he is studying fashion design at a local college, and runs the brand Gabusu. “I want my brand to be global, with lots of hands working together,” he says. “I want to show people that the materials in Kantamanto Market are still worth working with. It’s not waste to us.”

Najiha Yahaya and Latifa Forkwie

Tarn Program participants

Throughout Kantmanto Market are thousands of women and girls working as kayayei (headporters), some as young as six years old (exact numbers vary seasonally). In Kantamanto, kayayei carry bowls of goods (such as food), bags of waste, and whole bales of textiles that need to be transported between importers’ containers, storage and market stalls. According to The Or Foundation, the kayayei who carry 55 kilogram bales are primarily between 14 to 35 years old. They must weave through narrow, crowded market aisles, and are often paid less than 30 cents for trips over one kilometer long. These young women — many of whom are climate or economic migrants from northern Ghana — live and work in exploitative conditions, and many have died or been seriously injured in the process. One of The Or Foundation’s flagship programs is Mabilgu (meaning “sisterhood” in the Dagbani language). Here, kayayei are rehabilitated, many given access to safe housing, healthcare, therapy and English lessons for the first time. During their paid apprenticeship, they are retrained or upskilled, offering them a route out of head-carrying.