Benin Designers’ Incubator Support Program: Championing Africa’s Fashion Development

Few weeks ago, the Beninse government through her flagship project for human capital development (Sèmè City) in partnership with Institut Française de la Mode, launched the Fashion Led by Youth (FLY), an innovative program that is dedicated to the development of young creative entrepreneurs in African fashion.

The program is intended to provide participants the opportunity to develop their entrepreneurial skills to design and launch innovative products and services in a variety of sectors such as clothing, textiles, jewellery, accessories distribution, marketing and lifestyle which are all linked to the fashion and textile industries.

In addition to the above, the program is structured to help participants benefit from renowned professionals, expert led masterclasses, and involvement in a dynamic ecosystem.

The program saw over 700 applications received from emerging designers from Benin and other African nations. The registration which was for emerging designers between the ages of 18 and 35 lasted between March 12 and April 19, 2024.

The program which is the FLY incubator’s first cohort is scheduled to begin month of June and expected to consist of two five-day in-person group sessions to be led by professionals and experts from the Institute Française de la Model at the Sèmè City campus. Also, there will be an access to a digital toolbox containing self-contained methodological content, group coaching sessions and conducted via videoconference with IFM experts, and one-one coaching for the duration of the program.

Furthermore, candidates will get funding to complete their projects after the 12-month coaching period and will be provided with technical support. In addition to this, low interest loans between $50,000 and $850,000 will be provided as well.

This is a great boast to the development of fashion in Africa, the government of Bennin is applauded for taking this step and equally providing resources in seeing young African emerging fashion talents have a stake in the promotion of fashion in Africa.

This initiative is a great boost for emerging talents who are carving a niche for themselves in the African fashion industry, the thrilling part of this initiative is that the participants can come into the program as entrepreneurs, creative designers, stylists, or just enthusiasts without being a professional.

According to the managing director of Sèmè City Claude Borna ‘‘Our main objective is to identify and support emerging talent. We are looking for people with innovative ideas. We want to support them in developing their projects right through to the marketing phase’’ she went on to say ‘‘The most important thing is to know what impact the project could have on Benin’’, she went further to suggest that candidates will have a complementary profile. ‘‘For the first cohort, the aim is to bring together different but complementary profiles, we are not necessarily looking for designers or creators. It could be an idea, a medium, a distribution business or a new production method- we are quite open-minded in that project.’’

This should serve as a motivation or inspiration for other African nations, the African fashion spirit and glory should not die. Government of African nations should prioritize talents development in fashion, as it offers a lot of breeding opportunity as seen in clothing, textiles, jewellery, music, entertainment, etc.

Africans and true fashion lovers anticipate the unfolding of this event, it is the awakening of the giants in African fashion enthusiast.