Lagos to host Ankara Carnival in September

Plans are in motion for the first ever Ankara festival tagged the Lagos Ankara Carnival, slated to hold in the first week of September. According to Olawale Oladunjoye, the brain behind the event, the carnival would facilitate the exposure of Nigerian designers to the world.

During a media briefing to announce the upcoming carnival, Oladunjoye said this would become an annual event, which has the capacity of providing employment to millions of Nigerian youths and also help in the birth of new companies. He said the carnival would be in three segments- Ankara exhibition, award ceremony and Omidan Ankara. “The high point of the carnival will be the emergence of The Face Of Ankara, who will initiate Ankara-related pet projects aimed at development of skills, cultural re-orientation and learning, empowering of the youth and producing entrepreneurs in the Ankara fashion industry,” he said.

Prizes to be won include a brand new car and a year-long ambassadorship role for the winner while the second and third place winners will take home a N1,000,000 and N500,000 respectively.

He lamented the fact that many textile companies that produce the Ankara fabric in the country have folded up due to infrastructure decay and hopes that with the staging of the carnival, those in power would correct the decay, so that the moribund textile industries are resuscitated.

Pointing out that the fabric is now recognized on the global fashion scene and is now being used to make not just clothes but also bags, shoes, jewellery and countless accessories, he said it was time to harness the potentials properly and turn it into a veritable goldmine that would boost the country’s revenue and put the nation’s fashion industry on the world map for good.