Africa Sourcing & Fashion Week to Begin on Saturday

ADDIS ABABA – The fifth edition of Africa Sourcing and fashion week (ASFW) is set to be held at Addis Abeba’s Millennium hall starting from Saturday.

Over 280 international manufacturers and exporters from 25 countries are expected to showcase their products and services in this year’s program.

The main objective of the event is to attract investors in addition to creating a platform to experience sharing and augment transfer of technology, said Skander Negasi, CEO at trade and fair consulting GmbH.

The week will also be a great opportunity to promote Ethiopian small and medium enterprises and their products, he added

The organizers of the four-day event have a scheduled program that aims to promote Ethiopia’s textile strategy and policy, according to Sleshi Lemma, director of Ethiopian textile and garment institute

He said the event “will show the capacity and resources of Ethiopian textile and garment sector”.

Africa sourcing and fashion week will showcase textile, technology, leather, footwear, and home décor products and include a fashion show.

Ethiopian made high-quality products are expected to take a center stage, said Sleshi.

According to Sleshi, despite limited skill and technology, Ethiopian textile and garment sector is growing in its foreign exchange contribution to the economy.

In the 2018/2019 Fiscal Year, Ethiopia collects about 155 million US dollars from the textile and garment sector.

This fiscal year, the country managed to collect 52 million US dollars in the first quarter alone, according to government’s data.

There are, however, “a lot of things should be done to make the textile as major contributor” to the economy, he said, stressing on the need to work on having skilled human resources, raw material and affordable technology.

The Africa Sourcing & Fashion Week is expected to be key to show the way out for these challenges, according to the organizers.
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By Mhret G.kristos