The federal government has partnered with the Ladi Memorial Foundation (LMF) to host the first National Sewing Championship for youths aged 12 to 22 in Nigeria.
Speaking on Tuesday in Abuja while receiving a delegation from LMF, the Minister of State for Education, Dr. Yusuf Sununu, commended the initiative, stating that the program will improve Nigeria’s exporting capacity.
He said, “The Nigerian fashion industry has attracted the world’s attention. We were together in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, during the African Union meeting, the 2024 summit, and throughout the period, Mr. President was wearing clothes and a cap made in Nigeria.
“That’s an inspiration, and I was amazed when the President of Brazil came to Mr. President and requested similar clothes from Nigeria. It is something, and I am proud to be a Nigerian. It shows we have a lot of talent in Nigeria.”
Sununu explained that many people are now copying Nigerian attires, stating, “Once you wear it, it changes you completely. Look at the Indians or the Arabs; they look beautiful in Nigerian clothes.
“I must commend your efforts in trying to harvest talent and catch them young. Gone are the days when people looked at tailoring as not a money-making venture. We do know that right now, especially among females, the cost of sewing is higher than the fabric because you can get cheap fabric, but if you have a good designer, putting that fabric together becomes expensive,” he stated.
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The Minister further explained, “If you look at the 8-point Agenda and education priority focus, you will find out that skill is a major thematic area. That is why we are making efforts to review the curriculum to reintegrate and focus on skill acquisition.
“Stigmatization is a serious issue and has caused much damage to our system. We all know that many young men out there, prior to their tertiary education, were involved in one skill or the other. Some were automobile mechanics, others fashion designers, using these skills to sustain their education. But immediately they are handed a certificate, stigmatization comes into play. They now believe that you must have a white-collar job to survive, not knowing that education is supposed to provide them with critical thinking to professionalize their skill.”
He said the advent of innovation and technology is an added advantage that, when applied, would further strengthen small businesses and increase their productivity.
“We are also looking at areas like the National Skills Qualification Framework. We are working to see how various individuals who are skillful in areas like tailoring can be categorized into a diploma to have certification.
“Government is thinking out of the box on how to encourage young people into skills acquisition and expand small-scale businesses. We assure you that when it comes to who will train our children, the Ladi Memorial foundation will not be forgotten.
“You have demonstrated capacity; you have been doing it on your own. So what we are doing is to see how we can allow you to have access to more resources and expand it so that a lot of Nigerians will benefit from it.”
The Minister, therefore, called on Nigerians to patronize tailors in the country. “Let’s patronize them, rather than being consumers; we must be producers and exporters; that is the only way we can address this dollar crisis,” he stated.
On his part, the Vice-chairman of the Board of LMF, Engr, Kashim Ali, said the Ladi Memorial Foundation is targeting to pick the vulnerable young population, especially females, off the street so that even if they are not able to go through the normal academic programs in school, they will be able to do something for themselves and become successful in life.
Also speaking, the Executive Director of LMF, Mrs. Rosemary Ojechemini Osikoye, noted that the National Sewing Championship will produce over 18,000 garments.
Registration for the competition will start from March to July 2024.
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