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Activities relating to the renowned Africa Fashion Week Nigeria have begun. This was sensitised at a press conference to mark the beginning of the event on Tuesday, June 21, 2016, which had in attendance partners, designers, bloggers and various press houses.

Mr Sola Oyebade, the Creative Director of the AFWN and AFWL events announced that there would be over 65 designers to showcase their works in a space of two days over 4 shows. The show is about people wanting to step up their game. The AFWN he explained, is “an international event aimed at connecting African brands, giving them an opportunity to showcase what they have.” AFWN

Fashion is one industry which testifies that Nigeria has got talent. With an economy which has for so many years suffered the monotonous brunt of relying on the oil sector, the nation is open to investment from other industries. The AFWN is a platform through which gathers Nigerian designers to exhibit their products and interact with interested people and other brands. Talking on diversifying the economy, Mrs Carol Arhere, the PRO at Da Viva spoke about the AFWN as “an inspirational avenue for designers to tap into their talent and giving designers what to think about to promote the African fashion and to think outside the box in a time of low oil productivity.”

One remarkable thing is that the AFWN creates an organisation to sensitise people on a whole lot of information that would be beneficial to their business. Very few designers are aware that they can access loans worth millions of Naira rough the Bank of Industry. At the conference, the BOI will offer a series of master classes on how designers can access loans from the government.

Some of the designers to showcase their brands were present at the press conference. Omobolaji of Niiffe brand would be exhibiting for the first time at the AFWN, and has expectations of people’s consciousness to reawaken to the idea of the African fashion. Princess Mobola Akinruntan of Login House of Fashion is a designer for kids and ladies and her drive for passion has driven her from the oil to the fashion industry. Challenging traditional views are the designer brands like JPKingdom who share a positive side of promoting fashion trends for bold curvy sized ladies, and Rois & Reine who run with the idea of replacing corporate clothing (suits to caftans) for the boardroom/office.

As part of the awareness, a street catwalk show will be held at Shoprite (The Palms Shopping Mall) on the 25th of June. The conference and exhibition proper will take place at the prestigious Eko Hotel and Suites. With models from over 65 designers from different African countries, runway catwalk shows are scheduled to run by 1pm, 4pm and 8pm between 45 to 60 minutes on the 1st and 2nd of July. In the long run, each model would have an estimated 60 km walk.

Worthy to note is that this year, the finalists of the reality TV program, Nigeria’s Next Top Designer, will be announced on at the Gala night which holds on Sunday, July 3rd.

Africa Fashion Week Nigeria, founded by Nigeria’s own Ronke Ademiluyi, has conquered the Whole of Europe of with the London Version of the project: Africa Fashion Week London, rising since 2011 to become the biggest fashion platform in Europe promoting Fashion Inspired by Africa. This is the third anniversary of the Nigerian edition, AFWN. Tickets can be gotten at the Eko Hotel for ₦3000 only. For registration and further information, kindly log on to africafashionweeknigeria.com.

Images from the press conference are in the gallery below.