Lagos State has empowered fashion designers in the Lekki Free Trade Zone resettlement communities with a three-day upscaling designing skills programme to help them become better.
At the training held at the EKO MSMEs fashion hub, Allen Avenue, Ikeja.
Commissioner for Commerce, Industry and Cooperatives, Mrs. Lola Akande, was confident the programme would ignite the light of the fashion sector and ‘certainly encourage and challenge our youths and women in the Lekki Free Zone’.
She said: “This three-day programme will help these fashion designers from the Lekki Free Zone to upscale and acquire the appropriate skills and practical knowledge that will make them more suitable for the modern fashion business. It will also help to build essential creative and practical design skills, professional network and help them explore unique identity as they prepare to make their mark in the global fashion industry.”
“The proximity to the Lekki Free Zone and the Lekki Deep Sea Port is already an advantage to them as they prepare to produce for export, using the window of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).”
Permanent Secretary in the ministry Mrs. Adetutu Ososanya said: “The programme was initiated to help women and youths in the Lekki communities upscale their skills to enable them to sow for export. We want them to give their products better finishing so they can compete internationally. This is not a one-off thing; there will be other batches within the year as it will be a continuous step. The hub is meant to conduct other training for other people.”
The Hub Manager, Mrs. Ibitola Ogunmefun, said the hub was established to cater for fashion designers who wanted to upskill but didn’t have the means or capital to do so.
She added that the hub was always open to willing persons who wanted to be better at their skills.
Ogunmefun said: “It’s been three days of training for already trained tailors to help them upskill; it is an advanced training for them on how to give their work the best finishing. They were taken on pattern drafting and how important it is before cutting the fabric, as well as using the industrial machine. Now they just need to improve on what they have gained here and become better.
“This idea was conceived as part of strategies to see how Nigerian-made clothing can be exported. But to do that, the product must meet international standards, and that’s why we tagged the training: ‘Sewing for Export International Standards’. We especially hope our trainees will think towards exporting their products.”
A beneficiary, Zainab Olundegun, thanked the government for the initiative, and described the training as exciting, impactful and thorough.
“My initial knowledge of a perfect finishing was knitting, trimming, ironing and the likes after sewing, but these three days have taught me that finishing starts from measuring, pattern drafting to the cutting, ironing, notching, picking the right fabric, under fabric, linen and others. I can confidently say now I can sew like a professional.
“I have learnt, unlearned and relearned. The training is standard and it has opened my eyes to new opportunities to be explored in the fashion sector,” she said.
-Thenation
