Hello again {{first_name|Operators}},

Welcome to June, the last month of the first half of the game. A large theme in this week’s headlines is the industrialisation of textile manufacturing in Nigeria, with investments announced for 2 textile clusters. There’s also a new report by Consonance Investments breaking down the sourcing, funding and spending behind Nigeria’s wardrobes.

It’s encouraging to see the public sector respond helpfully to the private sector’s development ventures, especially if the result is fewer textile imports — according to the Consonance report, 90% of ankara is imported.

Further afield, the BRICS+ Fashion Summit is just 3 months away. Created by the BRICS+ International Fashion Federation and hosted by Moscow Fashion Week, the event has previously had a heavy focus on Africa (and not just BRICS member South Africa). If you’ve been to a previous edition, I have questions! Please hit reply and let me know.

My key story in this round up? Bogotá Fashion Week. In just 4 days of shows, talks, exhibits and wholesale business rounds, the event generated and secured trade worth about $4M in sales. How? By attracting 80 buyers from 22 countries as part of an internationalisation program meant to make Colombia a regional fashion hub. I’m hoping to find more stories fully breaking this down so I can take notes (and share them, of course).

Let me know what you’re up to in your job or business this week, and have a good one!

With thanks,
Modupe Oloruntoba