Pan-African Fashion Initiative is a platform for stakeholder engagement, dialogue, strategy and policies to advance the African fashion industry within the context of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). AfCFTA aims at removing trade barriers between African nations and thus expanding intra-Africa trade. Intra-African imports and exports currently account for just 15 per cent of all trade on the continent.

Many of the 44 AfCFTA signatories are garment-producing countries such as Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritius, Morocco, South Africa and Tunisia. Nineteen countries have so far ratified AfCFTA out of the 22 needed for the agreement to come into force.

Demand for African textiles and garments is increasing globally, and African patterns are gaining international recognition as fashionable and iconic pieces, with international fashion houses now integrating more and more African influences in their latest collections. Fashion is also an unique opportunity for African countries to tell their own stories and collectively project their continental identity.

The value of the global fashion industry, in which 90 per cent of the businesses are small and medium-sized enterprises, is around $2.4 trillion, with an annual growth of 5.5 per cent. Africa accounts for less than five per cent of this value, while Asia and the US share 80 per cent of the market.