African Fashion Project (AFP) is FICOTA's fashion development program. It is a multi-channel platform created to provide capacity building, community, and mentorship for fashion designers,  fashion professionals, fashion students, and SMEs based in Africa and the diaspora. It is a private sector initiative started in Yaoundé, Cameroon; co-founded by Mary Concilia Anchang and Alexis Rai Gaynor.  Our focus is creating solutions for the African fashion SME development and infrastructure needs on the continent and affecting the diaspora.

 

The onsite workshops in Cameroon and partnering countries are for locals with interest in fashion design, artisanal trades, and creative SMEs to provide machinery, resources, and knowledge of the fashion and textile industry. AFP creates opportunities for them to become vibrant African designers, artisans, creative SMEs, and brands. On the ground, the mission is to multiply the African cotton industry's transformation of local smallholder production and isolated skills and talents into African fashion products and sustainable SMEs using ancestral know-how blended with updated business models for the African and world markets. We emphasize the need to give consideration to the entire supply chain of products, including thorough elevation of standards across all stages of creation going from agriculture, technology, transport, energy, waste, job creation, community engagement, and social impact. AFP spotlights the importance of high awareness, accountability, and intention put into the work that runs throughout the supply chain and to establish mindful, transparent business models in hope that its residual benefits will be experienced across many industries and markets.