The Embassy of France in Nigeria, in collaboration with French and African experts and the Nigerian Incubator for Creative Industry (CCHUB), has launched the 2023/2024 Lagos x Paris Fashion and Design Accelerator.
The nine months project scheduled for October 2023 to June 2024, is targeted at strengthening the entrepreneurial skills of ten fashion and design Nigerian brands, as well as support their export opportunities to France, through participation in key global events.
It is part of the French government’s cultural and creative industries programme Creation Africa focused on showcasing African creative in the emerging technologies discipline like audio-visual, animation, eGames and Extended Reality (XR) launched on October 6 to 8, 2023 in Paris, as means of fostering new relations between France and Africa.
While the Fashion, Design, Visual and Performing Arts sector are excluded from the event, the embassy of Nigeria since June 2023, set aside €1.2 million fund to support Nigerian cultural and creative entrepreneurs in the fields of design, fashion, video games, audiovisuals and dance.
Of the 120 submitted applications for the project the ten selected beneficiaries of the funding include, in fashion: Lagos Space Programme, TJWHO Design, OBIDA, EKI KERE, ELEXIAY and WAF – Wafflesandcream Limited; in design: MALIKO and Ethnic Africa; and in the field of design OMI Collective, and Aga Design and Culture Limited.
The brands will receive over 120 hours of high level masterclasses, monthly mentorship sessions, and individual and group trainings. It will further feature physically tailored one-on-one courses on a broad range of subjects with actual tools and deliverables, direct and indirect grants, support to participate in a French event next year, and investment-readiness module with pitching sessions with investors.
Similarly, the accelerator programme will also focus on sustainable aspects of fashion and design.
“Following the example of the world’s leading luxury brands, which are increasingly concerned with environmental sustainability issues, we want to highlight the sustainable practices of brands that have made these issues an integral part of their ethos,” said French Ambassador to Nigeria, Emmanuelle Blattman.
