Africa’s fashion industry growing, needs more investments to go global —UNESCO

NIGERIA – Africa’s fashion industry is growing rapidly to meet local and international demand but inadequate investment limits its potential, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) said Thursday in a report released during Lagos Fashion Week.

According to ABC news, the report noted that Africa’s fashion industry was growing rapidly to meet demand but that inadequate investment still limits its potential.

Currently valued at US$15.5 billion worth of exports annually, the earnings from the continent’s fashion industry could triple over a decade with the right investment and infrastructure, according to UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay, who launched the organisation’s first report on fashion in Africa in Nigeria’s economic hub of Lagos.

With a young population of 1.3 billion people set to double by 2050, the continent’s fashion industry has also proven to be both “a powerful lever for the promotion of cultural diversity (and) also a way to empower young people and women,” Azoulay said.

Omoyemi Akerele founded the Lagos Fashion Week in 2011 to encourage the patronage of Nigerian and African fashion.

“A new breed of young designers is causing a stir in the international scene, reinventing the code of luxury while at the same time reconciling them with the demands of sustainable, local fashion and heritage.

“Africans want to wear Africa. It’s really beautiful to see because it hasn’t always been like this. But fast forward, a decade after, that’s all people want to wear,” Akerele said.

Featuring a mix of designers from across the continent, the annual fashion show celebrates — and provides a market for — local brands mostly highlighting African culture and crafts in various colours and styles.

In Nigeria and other parts of Africa, young fashion designers are hungry for success and are taking over the global scene, said the UNESCO director-general.

Across the continent, fashion continued to grow on various fronts – including in movies and films – in the form of textiles, garments as well as accessories and fine crafts, all with a long history of prestige and symbolic of the African culture.

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