As global demand for authentic, sustainable, and culturally inspired fashion rises, Africa stands uniquely positioned with its rich heritage, abundant resources, and a vibrant creative youth population.
Yet, despite its natural advantages, the continent’s leather industry remains underdeveloped, fragmented, and largely absent from global value chains. A major reason: the lack of a cohesive ecosystem that aligns skills development, market access, design innovation, and strategic branding.
The Africa Leather and Leather Products Institute (ALLPI), the continent’s lead agency for leather sector development, is spearheading efforts to close these gaps. Through investments in training, infrastructure, creative industry linkages, and global partnerships, ALLPI is working to position African leather not just as a raw commodity, but as a source of high-value finished products that can compete on the world stage.
At the 2025 Africa Sourcing and Fashion Week (ASFW) held in Nairobi, Mr. Nicholus Mudungwe, Executive Director of ALLPI, delivered a rallying call that captured the urgency of this mission.
His message was clear: Africa’s leather future must be market-driven, globally connected, creatively powered — and above all, strategically designed to win.
Mudungwe cautioned against traditional siloed approaches to skills development. “Curriculum should not be designed in isolation,” he said. “It must be informed by the end — by what the market actually demands.”
He stressed that training institutions must collaborate closely with manufacturers, fashion houses, and distributors, because distributors have their finger on the pulse of consumer preferences, including emerging trends in colour, texture, and style.
“The distributors know what the market is asking for,” he explained. “That intelligence must shape production, and this, in turn, must shape what and how we train.” Without such feedback loops, he warned, African training systems risk producing graduates ill-equipped for the realities of the modern industry.
To address this gap, ALLPI is rolling out regional design studios across member states and building partnerships with global fashion leaders such as Academia de la Moda. These collaborations are aimed at helping African technical institutions develop industrial, market-driven courses, drawing from international best practices to stay competitive.
Mudungwe also acknowledged Africa’s abundant design talent scattered across the continent but lamented the lack of economies of scale and limited market access. “You can have an excellent product,” he observed, “but if it’s not connected to a market, it remains invisible.”
In response, ALLPI is expanding the leather sector’s engagement with the broader creative ecosystem, involving sports personalities, musicians, and actors to champion African leather products. “If a football star wears shoes made in Africa or an actor carries an African leather bag,” Mudungwe said, “it sends a strong signal not only to the continent but to the world.”
He emphasised that market capture must precede scaling production. Building consumer mindshare, he noted, would naturally drive volume growth and secure Africa’s place in the global fashion economy.
Beyond flagship initiatives like the Real Leather. Stay Different. (RLSD) competition — which identifies and nurtures emerging African design talent — Mudungwe outlined broader ALLPI strategies aimed at transforming the sector.
“We are already seeing signs of success,” he reported. “Enterprises and artisans we have worked with have significantly improved their product quality. Some are now supplying established retail chains, others are supplying government departments, and several have entered export markets.”
He described RLSD as a catalyst that has helped shift mindsets and raise standards across the sector. Yet ALLPI is going even further by setting up a dedicated programme for product design and development across its member countries.
Importantly, Mudungwe stressed the need to create a secondary market for design itself — allowing brilliant young designers to sell their creative concepts to producers, even if they are not interested in manufacturing. “We must not limit creativity to production,” he said. “The future lies in enabling computer-aided design, digital innovation, and multiple career pathways for Africa’s youth.”
Mudungwe’s presentation at ASFW Nairobi made one thing unmistakably clear: Africa’s leather revolution will not be achieved through fragmented efforts or outdated models.
It will require market intelligence, global linkages, strategic branding, youth empowerment, and a bold collective vision to transform African leather into a force recognised and respected across the world.
KBC Digital
