Thrift imports have become a billion-dollar lifeline — and a barrier to industrialisation.
Africa’s second-hand clothing trade has grown into a multi-hundred-million-dollar market, reshaping how millions dress, work and earn a living. New MIT trade data show Kenya leading the continent, importing nearly $300 million in used garments in 2023, ahead of Ghana, South Africa, Uganda and Nigeria. Collectively, the top five markets account for close to $1.2 billion in annual imports — a figure that likely understates volumes given smuggling and informal flows.
From Nairobi’s Gikomba to Accra’s Kantamanto and Lagos’s Katangua, second-hand bales fuel a vast retail ecosystem. In Kenya alone, the sector supports an estimated two million livelihoods, generates over $100 million in customs revenue, and brings in roughly 100,000 tonnes of used textiles each year. For low-income consumers, thrift fashion remains the most affordable route to clothing; for governments, it is a stable source of tax receipts.
Yet the same trade exposes deep structural weaknesses. Local textile mills struggle to compete with low-priced imports. Ghana and Kenya face rising waste volumes as unsellable garments end up in landfills, waterways and coastlines — turning parts of the continent into a de facto dumping ground for global fast fashion. Nigeria illustrates the policy dilemma: a formal ban coexists with high levels of smuggling, reflecting the impossibility of enforcement when demand is strong and incomes are low.
As African governments pursue industrialisation under the African Continental Free Trade Area, the thrift economy sits at the centre of competing priorities: affordability for consumers, survival for informal workers, and growth for domestic manufacturers. The strategic question is whether policymakers can convert dependence on imported cast-offs into a pathway for local textile revival — or whether second-hand clothing will remain a symbol of Africa’s peripheral position in the global fashion value chain, absorbing both its bargains and its waste.
