Legal Issues Around Informal Labour in West African Tailoring Hubs

As global interest in African fashion continues to surge, so too does the urgency of examining the legal and ethical structures underpinning production in West African tailoring hubs. Cities like Lagos, Accra, and Dakar have long been home to rich traditions of tailoring and textile work, often operating in the informal sector. This article explores the legal ambiguities between informal production, artisan work, and exploitative labour. It argues that without a legal rethinking of how labour is defined, valued, and protected in these settings, the fashion boom risks perpetuating new forms of inequality under the banner of “cultural appreciation.”

Between Recognition and Regulation

In the heart of Lagos' bustling Yaba market, rows of tailors bend over machines, cutting, sewing, and finishing garments for clients ranging from local brides to diaspora clients ordering via Instagram. Similar scenes unfold in Accra’s Makola Market and Dakar’s Medina district. A plethora of these tailoring hubs serve as the backbone of West African fashion brands.

While African fashion designers are being celebrated on global stages, little attention is given to the systems that support their supply chains. The informal sector, once dismissed as marginal, is now central to Africa’s fashion narrative. However, this rise in visibility has not been accompanied by a corresponding legal reckoning. As a result, West Africa’s tailoring economy sits in a legal vacuum: visible, valuable, but vulnerable.

Mapping the Informal Labour Economy in Fashion: What Makes Labour Informal?

Informal labour refers to economic activities that are not regulated or protected by the state. Workers often lack contracts, social protections, pension schemes, and enforceable rights. In West Africa, tailoring is predominantly informal: tailors often rent stalls, own a single sewing machine, employ apprentices, and cater to a local or regional clientele.

This model has cultural legitimacy and economic resilience but lacks legal recognition. A tailor may work twelve hours a day without access to healthcare, while their apprentice may work unpaid for years in exchange for "training" and occasional stipends. No contracts are signed. No labour laws are enforced.

Artisan Work or Exploitation?

The line between heritage craft and exploitative labour is dangerously thin. Traditional apprenticeship systems are deeply respected in many African societies and serve as crucial mechanisms for skill transfer and social mobility. However, when these apprenticeships become a means to extract free labour under the guise of tradition, especially when tied to commercial production, there is a strong argument that legal intervention is necessary.

For example, in Lagos, it is not uncommon for young boys and girls, some as young as 12, to work in tailoring shops for 2–5 years with little to no pay. In return, they may receive a certificate or a second-hand sewing machine. While this may seem culturally normative, from a legal perspective, it raises serious concerns about child labour, wage theft, and the right to education.

National Legal Gaps: A Comparative Glance

Nigeria

Nigeria's Labour Act does not sufficiently address informal or apprenticeship labour in the tailoring sector. While there are general provisions about apprenticeship (e.g., Sections 49–52), enforcement is weak, and informal tailors rarely fall within the purview of state inspections. Many apprenticeships occur outside of any written agreement, making rights and obligations unclear and unenforceable.

Ghana

Ghana’s Labour Act (Act 651) does recognise informal labour and provides some guidance on fair treatment of apprentices under formalised conditions. However, the tailoring sector remains largely unregulated in practice. In Accra, informal tailors make up a large percentage of workers in the garment industry, but few are registered with Ghana’s National Board for Small Scale Industries.

Senegal

Senegal has made strides in recognising artisans under its Code du Travail, but enforcement is limited. Many tailors operate as part of the secteur informel, and while cooperatives exist, most workers remain outside formal protections. The traditional apprenticeship model is culturally respected but legally underdeveloped.

Global Spotlight, Local Shadows: The Ethics of Visibility

As African fashion becomes more visible globally, featured in Vogue, Fashion Weeks, and Netflix documentaries, the artisans producing these garments are not proportionately uplifted. Many are invisible in brand storytelling, unpaid or underpaid, and excluded from profits despite being essential to the product.

Brands, both African and international, often market “handmade” and “authentic” garments without disclosing labour conditions. The language of "empowerment" is frequently used in lieu of formal contracts or fair wages. As a result, the global fashion industry's embrace of African craft risks becoming another form of extraction.

Toward Legal Reform: Reimagining Protections for Informal Tailors

Legal responses must be ambitious and context-sensitive. A blanket push for formalisation may destroy the flexibility and cultural authenticity of tailoring hubs. Instead, what’s needed is a multi-layered approach:

Hybrid labour frameworks that accommodate traditional apprenticeships while ensuring minimum standards (e.g., fair working hours, education access for minors).
Recognition of cooperatives and unions as legal entities that can collectively negotiate rights and protections.
Micro-certification schemes to help informal tailors access new markets while incentivising ethical practices.
Mobile legal clinics and education campaigns to raise awareness among tailors and apprentices about their rights.

The Role of Regional and Continental Policy

Informal tailoring transcends borders. Many tailors in West Africa migrate between countries, especially during festive seasons. This cross-border nature of work calls for regional coordination.

ECOWAS could support standardised frameworks for apprenticeship recognition, social protections, and regional mobility.
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) offers a unique opportunity to integrate labour protections within trade protocols for fashion and textiles.
The African Union’s Agenda 2063 must include specific objectives around informal creative labour and its formal recognition as a driver of sustainable development.

Fashion in West Africa is not only about aesthetics. It is an ecosystem shaped by informal ingenuity, cultural legacy, and economic necessity. As the world celebrates African fashion, it must also reckon with the fragile foundation on which it rests.

Legal frameworks have a responsibility to evolve, not to extinguish tradition, but to protect the dignity of those who carry it. Informal tailors in Lagos, Accra, and Dakar are not just service providers, they are the cultural and economic architects of a rising global fashion identity. It is time the law recognised them as such.