ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Africa’s fashion industry is growing rapidly to meet domestic and international demand, but insufficient investment is limiting its potential, UNESCO said in a report released Thursday during Lagos Fashion Week.
Africa’s fashion industry currently generates $15.5 billion in annual exports and could triple those revenues in 10 years with the right investment and infrastructure, according to UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay, who launched UNESCO’s first-ever report on fashion in Africa in Lagos, Nigeria’s economic capital.
With a youth population expected to double by 2050 to 1.3 billion, Azoulay said the fashion industry in Africa has proven “a powerful tool for promoting cultural diversity and empowering young people and women”.
Across the continent, fashion continues to grow in various sectors, including film, in the form of textiles, clothing, accessories and luxury crafts that have a long history of prestige and are symbols of African culture.
The UNESCO report noted that demand for African fashion brands is also being driven by the growth of e-commerce.
Africa ranks number one in web traffic from mobile devices in the world, according to the U.S. International Trade Administration, which opens up new market opportunities, such as young people across Nigeria steadily launching fashion brands on social media.
“Africans want to wear African clothes, which is really great because it wasn’t always this way,” says Omoyemi Akerele, who founded Lagos Fashion Week in 2011 to encourage the support of Nigerian and African fashion, “but now, 10 years later, people only want to wear African clothes.”
Featuring a range of designers from across the African continent, this annual fashion show celebrates and provides a market for local brands that primarily showcase African culture and crafts in a variety of colours and styles.
The UNESCO chief said young fashion designers in Nigeria and other parts of Africa were hungry for success and were taking the global stage by storm.
“A new breed of young designers is making waves on the international scene, renewing the norms of luxury while at the same time reconciling them with the demands of sustainable local fashion and traditions,” she said.
Ejiro Amos Tafiri, one of the designers who took part in Lagos Fashion Week, said that through her brand she tells an African story while celebrating “the sophistication, class and uniqueness of every woman.”
“As exposure increases, people are realizing that there is a lot of culture in Nigerian culture, especially in the fashion industry,” she said. “So Africa is really the next frontier (for the fashion industry).”
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Associated Press writer Dan Ikpoyi in Lagos, Nigeria, contributed.
