Follow Us on Google
By Chukwuma Umeorah
As part of efforts to create employment for the youths, promote indigenous designs and increase the capacity of local manufacturers and entrepreneurs in the country, the organisers of Design Week Lagos (DWL) 2022, said that it would continue in its advocacy for local talents by providing a platform where they can display and grow their brand.
DWL is a leading concept conceived to present and celebrate the best in contemporary African design across categories. It creates a platform for local and foreign designers and visitors to experience the most exciting work from the region. It promotes creativity, and innovation across disciplines, including architecture, industrial design, interior design, furniture design, graphics design, and technology.
Speaking at the kick-off of this year’s edition of DWL themed “Beyond the box” which held in Lagos recently, the founder of DWL , Titi Ogufere, said the exhibition will hold from October 20 to 23 and is inspired by the need to bring Nigerian and African designers to center-stage as well as intensify efforts at improving the capacity of local manufacturers.
According to her, “the design industry is thriving, and having been in it for a long time, it was time to showcase what amazing talents we have here. We have so many local brands here as well as international brands based here in Nigeria in this space”.
Ogufere noted that DWL since it began in 2019, has been able to engage a huge number of Nigerian designers particularly the youth. Our local brands have now been able to train a lot of the youths and engage them productively. Outlining its importance to the economy, she said, “Design is so important, everything was designed; from spaces to roads to cities, there is an element of design in everything and it plays a critical role in the development of any economy. There are a lot of amazing brands and product designers that people do not know about. They keep going abroad to buy things that we produce locally. We are saying please patronize and see the work that we are doing in the city. This will add to the growth of the economy.”
Contract Manager of Woodstyles limited, Mejire Arubayi, who was one of the exhibitors at the event said that promoting local production has helped in the aspect of capacity building by engaging the youths in every aspect including designing, training and manufacturing.
He said, “As a project based company, we employ over 200 Nigerians at our factory and we source them from our local technical colleges and train them. That alone is helping the youthful population by creating employment. From inception, what we do is ‘train the trainer’. We train Nigerians who train other Nigerians. This has helped tremendously in capacity building.”
Also in the aspect of the economy and how promoting local designs and production has contributed, Mejire commended the government for the implementation of certain policies that has helped to give local designers and manufactures a fair chance at showcasing their talents and adding to the growth of the economy.
