Group Plan To Capture $34bn In GDP From Cotton-to-Garment Value Chain

Africa Made It, has launched its campaign, aimed at unlocking $34 billion in annual GDP contribution by shifting Africa from exporting unprocessed raw cotton to end-to-end local garment processing.

The initiative was officially launched in Lagos, with a clear roadmap for continental industrialisation: securing competitive energy power for local industrial mills, enacting policy measures to protect emerging domestic manufacturers from unfair foreign imports, and rallying African consumers to purchase locally manufactured apparel.

The Campaign titled, ‘Power, Protect and Purchase’, are designed to ensure that value created from African resources remains on African soil.

Africa Made It is driven by a consortium of leading pan-African organisations, advocacy groups and media organisations positioning Africa as a global investment hub. Its flagship campaign spotlights the fibre-to-fashion value chain as the first example of a broader push to move the continent from a primary exporter of raw materials to a global powerhouse that controls, processes and monetises its own resources.

Research by Africa Practice cited at the launch showed the scale of the leakage. Africa exports up to 98 per cent of its raw cotton overseas and captures only 2 per cent of its total value, while incurring a $35 billion annual trade deficit.

Building domestic processing capacity in spinning, weaving and sewing locally produced cotton would reverse that trend, the Group said.

It would sustain nearly two million permanent industrial jobs and inject approximately $33 billion directly into domestic household incomes every year, in addition to a recurring contribution of $34 billion to the continent’s GDP.

The editor-in-chief of the Africa Made It magazine, Marie Wilke said African culture, design and storytelling influence global fashion, music and media like never before, yet without domestic manufacturing infrastructure, Africa’s creative authority yields very little economic return.

“Linking raw cotton harvest directly to local processing ensures that the intellectual property, commercial margins, and industrial jobs remain on the continent. It is time to wear our power,” Wilke said.

Beyond the macro-economic figures, the campaign stressed the human impact, stating that industrial wages and local lint purchases leading to increased capital circulation in rural communities can drive community micro-economic vitality and contribute to rural poverty reduction.

Formal employment opportunities can also expand drastically for women, as they currently make up between 70-90 per cent of garment factory workers on the continent.

Africa Made It is coordinated by a network of partners including AllAfrica Media, Africa24, Africa No Filter, Africa Practice, Afreximbank, AKAS Consulting, Bird Story Agency, IC Publications, and Research Alpha.

The Group urged governments, investors and consumers to back the campaign, saying Africa’s vast natural wealth must be turned into sovereign, self-sustaining economic power.