The African Fashion Futures Incubator has introduced its first cohort of selected 14 fashion designers that will be joining the program to receive training and grant funding in a bid to equip new, up-and-coming fashion designers and brands with the necessary skills and monetary resources to create ethical brands.
The African Fashion Futures Incubator provides a space to challenge ideas and business concepts as well as give access to mentors and resources for the 14 fashion designers taking part in the program. The incubator will also cover topics on business models, market positioning, and comparative advantage, as well as sustainability & impact.
The incubator aims to encourage peer learning and cultural exchange among its participants as well as to future-proof them and instill excellent operational and business foundations to ensure growth and help them produce sustainable and financially viable enterprises.
The African Fashion Futures Incubator was created by the Impact Fund For African Creatives in partnership with the African Fashion Foundation in Ghana and includes Seedstars as the implementing partner of the program.
“Since its inception, the African Fashion Foundation platform has driven professional and educational opportunities in partnership with established players to support the success of the African creative economy. This collaborative program has been designed to help emerging designers in their infancy succeed by providing workspace, seed funding, mentoring, training and investment opportunities.” shared Onyinye Fafi Obi, Project Director of African Fashion Foundation.
African Fashion Foundation (AFF) is a not-for-profit organization that empowers fashion designers and creative professionals from Africa and its diaspora to succeed in the global fashion industry, among other contemporaries.
Leveraging their extensive experience in providing professional and educational developmental opportunities, AFF has been identified as the aggregator and incubator for fashion designers and brands for the Impact Fund For African Creatives (IFFAC).
IFFAC will be investing in private small and medium-sized enterprises specializing in the creative, fashion, and lifestyle businesses and industries in Africa. The Fund aims to address a lack of capital and management skills in young brands.
The 14 fashion designers participating in the African Fashion Futures Incubator are the following:
- Omafume Niemogha of Pepper Row (Nigeria)
- Travis Obeng-Casper of AJABENG (Ghana)
- Cynthia Otiyo-Abila of Cynthia Abila Studios (Nigeria)
- Jason Jermaine Asiedu of Jermaine Bleu (Ghana)
- Orire Aleshinloye of Oríré (Nigeria)
- Kusi Kubi of PALM WINE IceCREAM (Ghana)
- Ebuka Omaliko of Maliko (Nigeria)
- Kelvin Vincent of Anku Studio (Ghana)
- Abiola Adeniran-Olusola of Abiola Olusola (Nigeria)
- Jafaru Larry (Ghana
- Victor Anate of VICNATE (Nigeria)
- Nadia Eman Ibrahim of TABOu (Ghana)
- Aline Mukamusoni of AMIKE (Rwanda)
- George Tetteh of Atto Tetteh (Ghana)
“We’re excited to support designers in the field by supplementing their creativity with business acumen. Seedstars believes that innovation in all industries is powered by a community that helps empower creatives in every aspect of their work. In this case, from fabric to the runway, we’d like to ensure designers in the incubator are set to scale,” shared Tom-Chris Emewulu, Program Manager of Seedstars.
“IFFAC is excited to embark on this partnership with AFF and Seedstars, with the hope to establish and capture value in these brands at their nascent growth stages,” shared Roberta Annan, founder of IFFAC.
Participants are set to take part in an exponential and transformative program over a 9-12month incubation period to scale their ventures and enhance their value chains. Through a tried and tested methodology, the fashion designers will also receive hands-on support from industry experts across a global network as well as grant funding of up to USD 5K each and additional fundraising support.