As part of this year’s edition of the Design Week Lagos, a great initiative is set to become a feature of Design Week Lagos as Woodhall Capital has expressed its commitment to provide financing for the Nigerian design industry. The financing option, packaged in a series known as Design Den, will afford creatives opportunities to impress judges towards attracting funding for their businesses.
The 2025 edition of Design Week Lagos opened on Wednesday, February 26 at the Ecobank Pan African Centre and for every visitor walking into the venue, it was the beginning of an awesome experience. With beauty all around – draped in exquisite interior options, magnificent furniture pieces and incredible art pieces.
With the theme, ‘Building A Made In Nigeria Brand‘, Design Week Lagos also announced a partnership with Woodhall Capital on a new TV show called ‘Design Den’, which affords young creatives and startup founders the opportunity of pitching ideas to judges towards securing financing options to help them expand and scale up. Organisers say ‘Design Den’ will lead to a new era of financing and industrialisation for the design industry.
Titi Ogufere, founder of Design and Innovation Exhibition, which organises the Design Week Lagos, stated that the idea behind the show is to enhance the creative industry and open a new vista of financing for creatives in the design industry across Nigeria.
“At this year’s Design Week Lagos, we are proud to introduce the ‘Design Den’—a first-of-its-kind initiative focused on industrialising and financing the design industry. This is not just about supporting designers; it’s about building an entire ecosystem where creativity meets capital and industry. We are unveiling our vision to transform design into a structured, investment-worthy sector that can drive economic growth across Africa,” Ogufere stated.
She added, “One important thing to note about the partnership we’re building with Woodhall Capital is that we have been able to scale up to commit a lot more funding to the industry. So, we are not afraid but you have to make sure that your structure is right. You have to make sure that you have done the work you because sometimes, some people would come and say I want XYZ amount of funding. And then you have that kind of money. And also, you know, it’s also a journey for us, because sometimes it’s good for you to see your product and focus on the fact that this product gives you $2,000 but what is the market-ready outlook? Because when funders give you money, they want to ensure they can get their money back and we have to make sure of that.”
On the level of impact expected with the initiative, especially drawing inspiration from what has been done in other places across the world, Ogufere posited that the importance of funding for the creative sector cannot be overstated, given how financiers have helped to boost the American market for example.
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“In Nigeria, we are rich in creativity. As you walked around, you have seen the works of people designing from dolls to furniture and rolls. To even upcoming stars that we can use in markets. If these things can be scaled and the right kind of structure can be put in place, many businesses can scale. I am really excited about this partnership, like I said, because this partnership is going to open doors that I believe will bring forth an industrial revolution,” she submitted.
While focusing on the fundamentals of her company’s involvement, Mojisola Hunponu-Wusu, founder and CEO of Woodhall Capital, said the motive is towards helping businesses in the design industry attract funding and investment to increase their operational footprints and expand to different markets.
“We have to test if you actually have clients and customers to see if people would actually pay for this to ascertain the financial ingenuity of some of the assumptions you’ve made in creating your products. So, more than just a series, there is financial literacy, there is market access, there is global visibility, but there’s actually market access and market feedback data on whether or not, maybe you should be doing something totally or slightly different. It helps with information on maybe you should advise this person to focus on the corporate space where there is a huge gap, with the offices that are coming up today, and people are going back to work after working from home for some time,” Hunponu-Wusu said.
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