AfDB Opens Application For Fashion Entrepreneurs In Fashionomic Africa Competition, With $20k For Each Winner

Fashion designers, entrepreneurs, and business owners are asked to apply for the Africa Development Bank (AfDB) Fashionomic Africa incubator and accelerator programme via the bank’s call for proposals. The eight-week programme will involve training, a pitch event and cash prizes.

Four winners to go home with $20,000 each

About 12 finalists would slug it out for the top four prizes of $20,000 (N8 million) each.

The winners would use the cash prizes for business expansion

The programme’s curriculum and content will be divided into separate incubator accelerator programmes emphasizing investment readiness, branding, marketing, digitization and sustainability.

Participating businesses and individuals can show valid identification cards such as passports and voter cards given in an African country as means of identification. Candidates must be between the ages of 18 and 35 years. Women-owned fashion businesses would get top priority.

Eligibility and criteria

The programme is open to fashion entrepreneurs, including fashion designers, accessory designers, textile designers, illustrators of fashion, fashion photographers, tech-enabled fashion businesses and service providers with a primary focus on fashion.

Participating businesses must be under three years and could be registered or unregistered business concerns.

They must have proof of concept ownership at the micro-small or medium level. The businesses or individuals must have a clear and detailed description of the fashion brand.

Also, they should be registered formally as a business in an African country.

They must have existed for up to three years with solid traction, clear-cut product and sales channels, and a customer base.

Applications opened on October 14, 2022, and would last till October 23, 2022.

The selection and onboarding process would start on October 24 through October 28, 2022. And the online incubation and accelerator process would commence on October 31 and end on December 20, 2022.

According to reports, the pitching day would be on January 26, 2023, and the award ceremony on January 31, 2023.

The Fashionomic initiative by AfDB is to increase Africa’s involvement in the global textile, apparel and accessory market and value chains.

What Fahionomics is for

The programme aims to support the growth and expansion of micro, small and medium-sized businesses dominating the industry and providing them with access to markets, market intelligence and funding opportunities. The African Development Bank’s Fashionomics Africa ambition intends to boostAfrica’s participation in the global textile, apparel, and accessory value chains.

The goal is to support the expansion of the micro, small, and medium-sized businesses that dominate this industry by providing them with access to markets, market intelligence, and financing opportunities.