Stakeholders in the fashion industry have called for improved intra-African trade and business relationships among entrepreneurs in the fashion and arts industries on the continent.
The call came as organisers of the African Fashion & Arts Awards (AFAA) emphasised the need for fashion and art creatives to be empowered, rewarded and celebrated.
Founder and president of AFAA, Mr. Kingsley Amako, noted that over 65 percent of Africa’s 1.4 billion population is made up of youths between the creative ages of 12 and 35 years and that fashion and arts remained the most viable and potentially creative industry, generating the most revenue to effect significant change on the continent’s GDP.
Amako, at a recent press conference in Abuja, said despite the continent’s attention shift from oil to technology, the textile and apparel industry remained the second largest revenue-generating sector in the world’s developing economies, second to agriculture.
Speaking on the forthcoming third anniversary of AFAA scheduled for Abuja later in the year, Amako said the attention on the fashion and art creatives was the way to go.
The third anniversary of the AFAA is scheduled for December 1 to 3, 2023 at the Abuja Continental Hotel with the East African media tour to Tanzania, Kenya and Rwanda on October 6, 10 and 13, 2023 respectively.
Amako, when asked the reason for the tour stated that it had been the organisation’s practice since 2021 in South Africa, 2022 in Cairo Egypt and 2023 in three East African countries.
Appreciating the sponsors of the AFAA 2023, he said the AFAA mission, vision and mantra centred on empowerment, rewards and celebration of creativity.
“The African Union, African Development Bank, AfCFTA, AFREXIMBANK, Bank of Industry and the list goes on and on, have declared keen interest in the creative industry, however the emerging entrepreneurs in the fashion and arts sector seem to think that this is only for the Music and film industries,” he said.