The Governor of Abia State, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu has promised to deliver the latest and most recent machine for the Aba garment factory within the next few months.
The Governor, who made this promise at the grand finale of the Aba Fashion Week held at Sugarland Luxury City, Aba, also promised to invite everyone who has talent to the fashion factory to help develop them.
He described the event of the day as the “icing on the cake” that his administration has been baking since 2015 when it realized that the only way to move Abia State nay Nigeria forward was to tap into the abundance of talents that the young ones have especially in shoes and garments sub-sector.
In his words, “I have been to three countries, Turkey, China and indeed sent fashion designers to a similar fashion fair in New York because I wanted to embolden our people, let them have confidence in what they can create with their hands.”
According to the Governor: “There are two critical inputs about fashion. The first one is creativity and we have seen this evening, an abundance of creative minds. What I have witnessed here is a crossover of fashion from casuals to beautiful dinner wears, to framed suits in Aba back to our traditional wears with African prince. We’ve seen it all, our people have created all of these things. And I want to say to us that the GUCCIS of this world are not better than the designers we have seen here today. It’s a question of our being able to say Yes we can do it, once you say that, to yourself I’m confident and sure you can do it.
The other critical input is automation. We must be able to finish our apparels in a decent and flawless way and we must be able to reproduce them. If I want to do a uniform, they should look exactly the same and you can not do that without machine.”
Ikpeazu promised to make the Aba fashion week an annual event challenging the young people in the fashion industry to work hard to make Aba the Bangladesh of the world where people can always run to for quality wears.
He equally challenged the Chairman of the organizing committee, Barr. Sam Hart and his team to look out for opening outside Nigeria, noting that he was prepared to sponsor some of the people in Aba for more knowledge abroad and expressed the hope that they would make a great success.
Speaking earlier, the Director General, Abia State Marketing and Quality Management Agency, and Chairman of Aba Fashion Week Organizing Committee, Barr. Sam Hart disclosed that over 20 fashion designers were on parade the Aba Fashion Week runway with their various different designs and styles on display.
Mr. Hart expressed satisfaction with the turnout and turn up of the event within the week, and thanked Governor Ikpeazu, who was physically present, for creating an enabling ambience for such an event.
He observed that it was the first of its kind for such event in Aba nay Abia State where over 70 models from across the country would be entertaining the gathering and expressed the hope that the event would be an annual ritual.
Dignitaries present at the grand finale include: Mininster of State for Mines, Dr Uche Sampson Ogah, Commissioner for Trade and Investment, Rt. Hon. Cosmos Ndukwe, Commissioner for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises, Mr Onyema Wachukwu, Chairman Aba Sports Club, Chief Jerry Kalu, President Nigeria Union of Journalist, Mr Christopher Isiguzo, Special Adviser to the Governor on Diaspora Matters, Dr. Mrs Ngozi Ogbonnaya Erondu, Reymond Aliya, Okey Ahaiwe, Joseph Ogwo and a host of others.
ABIA ONLINE, one of the media partners of Aba Fashion Week, reports that the high point of the event was the display of different designs on the runway by models as well as live performances by some notable musicians in Aba.
