Estimated to be potentially worth about $5 trillion globally on a yearly basis, Nigeria has been tasked on the need to tap maximally the benefits the fashion industry has to offer.
This is even as it has been established that Nigeria is not listed among the top 10 apparel-exporting countries in Africa.
Statistics emanating from the ongoing Fashionomics Conference and Exhibition organised by the African Development Bank (AfDB) in collaboration with the Lagos Fashion and Design Week (LFDW) indicate that the fashion industry globally is expected to double in the next 10 years, generating up to $5 trillion yearly.
The AfDB while charging Nigeria and other African countries on the need to develop the sub-sector, pointed out that fashion is big business. It stressed that the combined apparel and footwear market in sub-Saharan Africa is estimated to be worth $31 billion based on data from Euromonitor International.
The regional bank explained that the textile industry value chain begins with the production of cotton and moves through the spinning and twisting of the fibre into yarn, the weaving and knitting of the yarn into fabric, and the bleaching, dying, and printing of the fabric to obtain the fashionable garment worn worldwide today, adding that at each step of the value chain, more value is added and additional jobs created.
In her opening remarks, the AfDB’s vice president and special envoy on gender, Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, said that the bank was out to promote the fashion industry in Nigeria which she described as a multi billion dollar industry if well harnessed.
