What's holding back Africa's fashion industry?
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 5 February 2024
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The continent's fashion industry holds all the cards to becoming one of the world’s fashion leaders. It has the natural resources, the workforce and a growing middle class who want to wear African brands.
However, there are challenges including poor infrastructure, lack of investment and limited training opportunities in fashion - highlighted in a recent Unesco report.
We hear from designers on the continent and overseas to get their opinion on what’s needed to help the industry grow and learn why Afrobeats is helping to put African fashion on the map.
Produced and presented by Megan Lawton.
(Image: Atmosphere at the Labrum London show during London Fashion Week February 2022. Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Una Chaplin and I'm the host of a new podcast called Hollywood Exiles. |
| 0:05.7 | It tells the story of how my grandfather, Charlie Chaplin, and many others, were caught up in a campaign to root out communism in Hollywood. |
| 0:15.3 | Hollywood Exiles from CBC Podcasts and the BBC World Service. Find it wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:22.6 | Hello, I'm Megan Lawton. |
| 0:25.6 | Welcome to this edition of Business Daily from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:29.6 | Today, we're taking a look at Africa's fashion industry |
| 0:32.6 | and asking whether the continent is the world's next global fashion hub. |
| 0:36.6 | I think a lot of people are really, really hopeful and optimistic. |
| 0:41.3 | We have the landmass to create things like this and a supply chain to change |
| 0:47.3 | how the fashion industry work. |
| 0:49.3 | A recent report from UNESCO shows the continent holds all the cards to becoming one of the |
| 0:54.1 | world's fashion leaders. It's a major producer of raw materials like cotton and has a growing |
| 1:00.2 | middle class who want to wear local fashion. I've seen a tremendous change in fashion designing |
| 1:05.4 | in my country and people buying and wearing what is made in Malawi. |
| 1:10.2 | Africans more and more are now aware of the value in what is made locally. |
| 1:15.6 | However, there are challenges, poor infrastructure, lack of investment, |
| 1:20.1 | and limited training opportunities. |
| 1:22.1 | The kind of production of the fabrics that have been produced, |
| 1:25.1 | the quality is poor for international markets. |
| 1:28.1 | There's a lot of different infrastructure problems |
| 1:30.5 | across the different countries, |
| 1:31.6 | and it's also very hard to have many different regions |
... |
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