By Michael Dibie
Business experts in the leather and shoe industry have called on Africans to help push the continent forward. The call was made as the city of Abuja hosted the 2024 made in Nigeria shoe expo, a platform for international firms to harness lucrative value-chains across the footwear and leather markets in Africa.
Made in Nigeria shoe Expo (MINSE) is platform for international firms to harness lucrative value-chains across the footwear and leather markets in Africa.
It is seen as response to changes in market patterns, and to help policy makers execute strategies to grow the leather industry.
According to the Expo, Africa’s footwear and leather products market is valued at over $15 billion US Dollars.
“Africa share is less than $5b, Africa has the potential of making 20% so when you look at the numbers, Africa is falling short of over $58b on the basis of its potential, so Africa has to do a lot of work to catch up with the rest of the world,” Nicholas Mudungwe, Executive Director, Africa leather products institute said.
:We exported leathers to countries, and it is same leather from Nigeria that were used to produce shoes that we now import into the country but if we can encourage these young people now on how to turn those skin into, I think we can get revenue,” said Christopher Tarka, Chief of Staff, Secretary to Nigeria government.
The National coordinator, Made in Nigeria shoe Expo, Emmanuel Ugbodaga says it is an expo to showcase the best design of shoes and leather works in Nigeria industry, and to expose our talents to the world, and create diverse job opportunities.
“One of the critical things for the industry is going to be export, to build an export driven industry and potentials for the industry is in millions of dollars but currently, we are trading around $5b and its core is around leather not footwears. So our idea is to integrate footwear into this revenue potential,” Emmanuel added.
“We can see there are a lot of brands and many people are trying to give us some of those things from abroad, they are trying to create it here in Nigeria so we can easily buy them,” said Oluchi Diamond, a Model.
The Expo has seen participants drawn from over Nine (9) states in Nigeria alone and international participation drawn from Europe, Africa and Asia Pacific.
The global leather goods market size was valued at $468 billion in 2023 and projected at $738 billion by 2030.
