Stakeholders within the African style business are pushing for an estimated $500 billion style economic system on the ongoing Creative African Nexus going down in Lagos, writes Charles Ajunwa
Since Thursday, the Wole Soyinka Centre for Culture and the Creative Arts, previously the National Arts Theatre, Lagos, has been internet hosting Africans from completely different fields of endeavour on the ongoing CANEX WKND 2026, which ends tomorrow.
All the flooring within the spherical construction which hosted FESTAC 77, had been occupied by vibrant stands for style set up, arts exhibition, inventive economic system expertise showcase and innovation lab, music, sports activities, gastronomy and culinary artwork hub. Some of the halls had been used for masterclasses the place specialists shared their experiences.
The Ministry of Art, Culture, Tourism and Creative Economy which partnered Confederation of African Fashion (CAFA), attracted guests from completely different walks of life.
Nigeria grew to become the primary nation to signal the African Fashion Industry Growth Charter on November 5, 2025, with the Minister of Art, Culture, Tourism and Creative Economy, Hannatu Musa Musawa, signing on behalf of the federal authorities.
After chopping the tape declaring open the FMACTCE/CAFA stand, Musa mentioned the “African Fashion Industry Growth Charter is essential for us as Africans and extension of African Caribbean.
“What many individuals don’t know is that CAFA has been very instrumental to me expressing myself in the previous couple of years that I’ve been Minister of Art, Culture, Tourism and the Creative Economy, and my hope is that that can translate into one thing very tangible economically, jobs, and likewise past that, a unity for Africa and expression, pleasure, delicate energy, the whole lot that we have to construct on the business.
Apart from coverage, the minister emphasised that, “it is very important for us to have capacity building, and that can only happen through infrastructure, and one of the things we are doing actively is to ensure that we have hubs all over Nigeria, and we are in progress, and hopefully, this will add to economic growth, job creation, and so many great things that will come out of this industry.”
She added, “Afroliganza seeks to build a structured, values-driven fashion economy rooted in African heritage, led by African institutions, and positioned for global impact.”
CAFA President, Prof. Lai Labode, talking on reaching $500 million African style business, mentioned, “Nigeria, Africa and the remainder of Africa we don’t have a scarcity of skills and what Africa wants is construction. Money at all times comply with construction. You have seen the works that Afreximbank has accomplished and plenty of different establishments, you discovered that that it’s time for us to have the ability to unite in the case of coverage. Hence, the institution of the Confederation of African Fashion (CAFA), which is the common coverage physique for all African nations. November 5, 2026, makes it precisely one 12 months that Nigeria signed. Of course, we’re registered in Rwanda.
There’s fairly a bit of labor already happening and we’re constructing this on the constitution that we’ve put collectively. It’s referred to as the African Fashion Industry Growth Charter.
“This constitution is one which lastly we consider that we unite Africa and we will push really from a $60 billion style economic system to $500 billion. It is constructed on 10 pillars. The first pillar is coverage. United coverage. The second is cultivation. So, you possibly can think about a spot like Brazil exporting $5.3 billion price of cotton and picture a spot like China the place they may develop the cotton and course of it and make virtually $300 billion.
“Africa can’t afford simply to promote cotton. They will come to processing. Processing is essential and it’s one of many methods to create jobs because the case could also be and we should make investments closely in that. Aside from processing itself, we now have to have a look at mental property.
“Intellectual property is such a big deal that if you look at the economy of Europe, they are called IP-intensive industries. They provide almost half of their GDP. Just imagine what Africa is losing with that and they will look at counterfeiting. Imagine as organised as Europe is. Europe still loses about 12 billion euros every year. Just imagine what Africa is actually losing. Then, of course, we come to logistics. Logistics, everybody talks about making big money from fashion, but there’s a lot of investments behind it.”
In her remarks, the proprietor of Nike Art Gallery, Chief Nike Davies-Okundaye mentioned, “Our style is our heritage and we should at all times adore it. And the primary one that will not be ashamed to put on our material anytime, even when it’s scorching, is Lai Olabode. He is our style king in Nigeria. We are right here in the present day, to honour him for placing Nigerian style into the runway for the youths to proceed.
“The challenge in creative fashion industry is that we have to bring back the textile industry so that we can producing our nwn textile in Nigeria.”
Founder, Olori Art Foundation, Mrs. Aina Davies, mentioned “Africa’s previous is certainly the longer term, and I feel being conscious of our tradition and our data of our tradition will assist us be happy with the place we’re from, but in addition making the style accessible.
“One of the biggest challenges African fashion has when serving a global audience is having global quality standards.”
On safety of African designers, she mentioned “We have to document our culture brought by ourselves. We have to own our own narratives. Because so far, a lot of our culture has been documented and shared by the West through the eyes of the British. We have to share our own stories and our own narratives throughout the land. And only then will we be able to really own and play what we stand for.”
