Nora Bannerman

Nora Bannerman-Abbott, widely known as Nora Bannerman, is a Ghanaian fashion designer and garment manufacturer. She is the chief executive of Sleek Garments Export Limited, one of Ghana's best-known clothing exporters, which she runs with her daughter Natasha.

Career

In 1979 she set up the Sleek Fashion Institute, a skills training school for young people, especially young women. She started her garment business on a small scale in Accra in the 1980s using her mother's sewing machine and grew it into a factory in Accra's industrial area. In 2007 Sleek Garments was named an AGOA success story after exporting 75,000 men's shirts to the United States, sold in Ross Stores under a Made-in-Ghana label. With EU support she also showed the Nora Bannerman Collection at trade shows and runways in Paris, Düsseldorf and other cities.

She is a past president of the Ghana Apparel Manufacturers Association and chaired the garments and textiles sector of the Association of Ghana Industries from 2012 to 2014. She has served on the governing board of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre.

Recognition

Sleek Garments won the Made-in-Ghana award for Outstanding Textile and Garment Company of the Decade, and she was inducted into the Corporate Ghana Hall of Fame in 2021. On 7 November 2026 she was one of seven pioneers honoured at the inaugural Black Star Fashion Week in Akosombo.