Organisers of the Port Harcourt Fashion Experience Festival have said that the event is expected to rekindle the fashion industry in the Niger Delta which seemed to have suffered neglect for several decades now.
Announcing a two-day event slated to hold from the 24 to 26 October 2024, event’s Communications Director, Oby Fakae said the event is a four-phased programme expected to reposition Port Harcourt as vibrant fashion hub.
The star event, according to her is the We Summit in which at least 500 women entrepreneurs would receive free booths for exhibition, training, and counseling on how to successfully operate their businesses and financial grants from some partners of the fashion festival.
She added that the programme would also feature exhibition which would be like “the trade fair we are used to, holding at the Obi Wali Cultural Center. Participants are expected to buy booths and exhibit their products and services.
Then the Fashion Experience – Private runway show where select designers only on invitation would have a private runway to showcase their talents.
There will also be a Festival of Arts to feature music stars and other celebrities. “This final is like to create fun out of work for participants to unwind and connect. Businesses that have been exhibiting will party and have opportunities to build new connections that will advance them”, Fakae stated, adding that about 10,000 participants were being expected at the two-day event.
Speaking at the We Summit for women entrepreneurs, Founding Director, Boma Ogidigben said “The We Summit, is the most important because of what we are planning for the women. We want to look at the grey areas when it comes to business. Where women can key in, where women can actually thrive.
“We have a handful of partners who want to assist women thrive in their businesses. We have sponsors coming in, giving women free booths to exhibit their businesses at the fair and also giving out grants in different measures to women in Rivers.
“It’s not just about giving out grants and free booths, we also want to equip these women intellectually on how to navigate their businesses. A lot of businesses suffer because they don’t have like the right tools and information to know how to run their businesses.
“We will bring resource persons to come and teach these women, show them how these things are done and mentor them because it’s not going to be a one off thing. Not give grants and just go to sleep. We want to see progress so we designed a follow up plan on how to ensure that the things they learned and grant received are judiciously deployed”.
On the importance of the programme to the fashion industry in Rivers State, Ogidigben stated; “For us in the fashion industry, we have noticed that we have not been really represented and we have been lacking when it comes to having like a fair.
“A lot of us in this industry, we travel far and wide out of this country to attend fairs. We get our resources for fabrics, resources for new business, and new customers, through fairs. So that’s why we decided to put up this so that fashion industry and fashion lovers can have an event, a one-stop event, like a one-stop destination where you get everything fashion at a discounted price.
“You will be able to make new connections, possibly have new business partners, for people that have boutique, tailors, shoes dealers, everything in the fashion space. You can actually meet textiles companies coming in so people can have one on one communication with these factories and possibly do business with them”.
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