The first edition of the Fashionomics Africa competition would be an excellent opportunity for the African Development Bank to showcase the creativity of African fashion designers striving for a more circular fashion industry. As per the Kohan Textile Journal, African Development Bank hosted Fashionomics Africa webinar on December 10 alongwith the HEVA Fund. The webinar was attended by 150 fashion entrepreneurs and focused on finance. It discussed the challenges faced by fashion entrepreneurs, especially women and youth, in Africa’s creative industries.

Participants were also presented with opportunities to access finance from investment funds including the Alithea IDF Fund, for which the African Development Bank is an anchor investor; the Women’s Investment Club (WIC) Capital; the African Export-Import Bank; the State Bank of Mauritius; Thundafund and Senegalese clothing brand, Sarayaa.

Vanessa Moungar, Bank Director, Gender, Women and Civil Society, said the ongoing pandemic has prompted adaptations and innovations to keep Africa’s $31 billion fashion industry thriving. According to her the crisis provides an opportunity to set up targeted support mechanisms and develop new and innovative financial tools for the textile, apparel and accessories industry that will not only help the entrepreneurs make it through, but set the basis for them to grow their businesses going forward.

Evelyne Dioh Simpa, Managing Director, WIC Capital, emphasized on the importance of developing financial products and capacity building tailored to fashion entrepreneurs.