Stakeholders in the women’s fashion industry have called for greater innovation and sustainability to boost the quality of locally made garments and position Nigeria to compete effectively in African and global markets.
This call was made during the unveiling of the Garment Innovation and Sustainable Production Hub in Lagos by the Association of Women in Fashion Tech (WIFT), in partnership with the Central and Eastern European and West African Business Association and UN Women.
The President of WIFT, Bukola Ajani, explained that the hub would serve as a collaborative space for fashion entrepreneurs to enhance product quality, protect intellectual property, and promote eco-friendly production.
“We discovered that it is important that we have a space for our community, where they can work together as a team, share ideas, share knowledge, and come up with something innovative enough to work with. We must protect our innovative designs, and one thing that we did was to build a blockchain-based virtual try-on store where you don’t even need to wear the physical clothes. We also just finished working on our banana fiber Asoke, where we use banana fiber for Asoke production,” Ajani said.
She added that the hub, located at Isheri North GRA, would provide designers with access to working space and accommodation for extended projects. “The hub is for our members, but it’s equally open to the public. So, if you don’t have a machine, you don’t even need to break the bank to set up your facility. You can come to our hub for your production,” she noted.
Ajani, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of Garment Business Consulting Limited, emphasized that with the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), Nigerian producers must raise their standards. “For us to be trading with one another under the AfCFTA, we can’t be selling mediocre goods. We must improve our production and quality so that we will be able to compete within the continent,” she said.
According to her, the hub will also provide affordable access to production facilities, a database of skilled tailors, accommodation for designers, and programmes such as boot camps to build capacity. She urged the Federal Government to support the initiative by discouraging the influx of imported ready-to-wear garments, stressing that Nigerian women are capable of producing for both domestic and international markets if given the right backing.
The UN Women Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Beatrice Eyong, praised the initiative, noting that it would help women overcome business barriers such as limited access to finance, markets, and information.
“Statistics show the fashion industry contributes between $2bn to $6bn to Nigeria’s economy. So women have to play their part to ensure the economy grows, but the Federal Government must also facilitate favourable policies,” Eyong said. She added that empowering women in fashion would directly benefit households and communities, since investment in women translates into better health, education, and overall well-being for families.
Also speaking, Olaronke Oni, a member of WIFT and Creative Director of JBL Global Link Limited, described the hub as a one-stop centre for sustainable fashion across Africa.
“This programme connotes sustainability because we are using locally made fabrics and dyes, while infusing technology such as coding and virtual try-on tools. It is beyond Nigeria now, a hub that will make brands sustainable across the continent,” Oni said.
