The African Fashion & Arts Award (AFAA) has begun her annual PRESS CONFERENCES ACROSS AFRICA. This year, the Media Tour is scheduled for the EAST AFRICA, to TANZANIA, KENYA and RWANDA on the 6th, 10th and 13th October 2023 respectively.
The Founder and President of AFAA, Mr. Kingsley Amako in an interview about her forthcoming 3rd anniversary of AFAA to be held in Abuja, Nigeria on the 1st - 3rd December 2023 at the ABUJA CONTINENTAL emphasised the need for the fashion and art creatives to be empowered, rewarded and celebrated. He added that AFAA seeks to use fashion and Arts which is all encompassing as a driving tool for economic development, while creating opportunities and platforms for emerging fashion entrepreneurs, Musicians, Creative Visual Artists, models, Painters, Sculptors, Writers, Poets and Podcasters.
Amako, when asked the reason for the tour stated that it is the organisation's practice since 2021 in South Africa, 2022 in Cairo Egypt and 2023, Three (3) East African countries. He shared that over 65% of the African 1.4billion population is made up of youths between the creative ages of 12-35 years and that fashion and arts remains the most viable and potentially the creative industry vertical generating the most revenue enough to effect a significant change on the continent's GDP. He argues that despite the continent's attention shift from oil to tech, the textile and apparel industry remains the second largest revenue generating sector in the world's developing economies, second to agriculture.
While speaking about the need for investments in the fashion and arts industries, Amako recognised the AFAA2023 official Key Sponsors to be ABUJA CONTINENTAL renowned for its luxury and creativity. As a prestigious event destination and a distinguished member of the continental Hotels family, Abuja Continental, standing as a beacon of opulence and creativity, reflecting its unwavering support for AFAA 2023 and PASHIONE, a Social - Commerce platform that addresses the problem of unequal access to African fashion brands.
To achieve the Africa we desire, the right amount of awareness and sensitization has to be made for the relevant government, public and private sector organisations to consider for investment. 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. AFAA wishes to change this narrative through these Press conferences across Africa and the Award ceremony in December.
He identified the following as benefits of AFAA’s mission in Africa to encourage talent development and skill acquisition for self-reliance, create job opportunities for the over 13 million African graduates annually, improve the continents GDP, attract Foreign Direct investments (FDIs), promote intra-African trade and business relationships, influence the distribution and trade policy reviews, contribute towards women and youth empowerment, promote peace among nations, influence african youths for less or zero security threat, contribute towards poverty eradication with the capacity building training sessions through the AFAA masterclass and mentorship symposium, to promote export for FX and to strengthen several nations economy from high patronage of home grown, provision of market information, access to markets and suppliers, promotion of entrepreneurial activities and the channelling of funding to entrepreneurs and SMEs/MSMEs.
Mr Amako in his summary mentioned that the Fashion and Arts industries identified as the sector employing the most women and youths in the continent and the sector that completes the value chain from the Farm to the finished apparels. The industry globally is expected to double in the next 10 years, generating up to US$ 5 trillion annually. This presents a tremendous opportunity for Africa at various levels of the value chain, from design to production to marketing.
Acknowledging the role of modern technology, AFAA 2023 have considered a topic on the infusion of technology in fashion and arts as part of the AFAA masterclass and mentorship symposium.
For sponsorship and participation opportunities in AFAA-2023, kindly visit www.afaawards.org call/whatsApp +2347055445987 and follow our social media handles @afaawards Road2AFAA
“The future is ready for African innovation and creativity” Kingsley Amako
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