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Ireoluwa Soetan, founder of A+ Fashion Academy, is set to unveil the Emerge Fashion Challenge in the South-South part of Nigeria to groom the next generation of fashion designers in the region.
Forty South-South fashion entrepreneurs will be selected and trained by experts on fashion and digital skills, with 10 chosen for possible funding and incubation. The 10 incubated designers will debut their collections with b i g g e s t e-c o m m e r ce r e t a i l e r s i n A f r i c a.
Three winners will be rewarded w i t h cash and tools .
According to Soetan, the project will involve practical fashion training, fashion exposure training, fashion styling, brand launch and market entry.
It is open to unemployed and young adults that have been affected by the Covid-19 and have decided to start a career in fashion.
“The project seeks to give the various actors and sponsors the opportunity to create post-covid opportunities, develop creative businesses, develop CSR initiatives and further improve the local content through skills acquisition in the fashion industry, job creation and poverty alleviation,” she said.
It also aims to create value in Rivers State and other states in the South-South region.
“Over 3,000 fashion brands over the past 10 years in South- South Nigeria have been unable to scale up their businesses outside the region and build digital Brands,” she further said.
“However, foreign investors are identifying various opportunities in the continent’s fashion industry,” she noted.
She explains that the Emerge Fashion Challenge attempts to rewire and find solutions for the fashion market value & sustainability gap in the Niger Delta region based on global best practices.
The winner of the Challenge will walk off with N500,000, industrial sewing machine and iron, while the runner-up goes home with N300,000, industrial sewing machine and iron. Also, the second runner-up will go home with N150,000 and industrial sewing machine. The programme is expected to last between August and December.
All participants will be awarded a certificate of participation.
All 40 participants will be personally mentored by A+ Fashion Academy instructions on a one-on-one basis, she said.
Participants are eligible for internship with A+Fashion Academy partner factories based on certain criteria, she noted.
