Nigeria’s fashion industry rakes in N2tn yearly, says FG

Nigeria’s fashion industry generates annual revenue of around N2 trillion and employs over 30,000 practitioners, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said.

”Compare this with the film industry, with an annual revenue of N140 billion or the music industry, with an annual revenue of N300 billion, and you will understand how huge the fashion industry is,” he said on Monday while declaring open a fashion exhibition in Lagos.

Mohammed described fashion as a valuable part of the nation’s culture, whose importance in the nation’s history cannot be ignored.

He said the exhibition would capture the rich contribution of fashion and dress code to the Nigerian national identity all through the years.

He said the fashion industry had been underrated, especially in its capacity and ability to help advance the government’s economic diversification policy, as well as wealth and job creation.

“While we continue to focus on music and film, we tend to ignore or underrate the fashion industry. I guess this is because of the lack of adequate information about the industry,” Mohammed said.

In her remarks, the Founder of Terra Kulture, Mrs Bolanle Austen-Peters, said the historic fashion exhibition is a six-part series to showcase Nigeria’s fashion, festivals and religions, among others, from pre-independence to present-day Nigeria.