Nigeria is one of Africa’s largest producers of raw hides and skins, processing over 750,000 metric tonnes annually, and exports most of it as low-value raw material, leaving the finishing, the manufacturing, and the profit margin to other countries. The Lagos Leather Fair was built around that problem.
Now in its ninth edition, the fair is scheduled for June 27 and 28 at the EPAC Center, Victoria Island, Lagos, under the theme “Beyond the Hide: Scaling Value, Building Industry, Driving Growth.” The title is a direct argument about where Nigeria’s leather industry needs to go, away from raw exports and toward finished goods, local manufacturing, and retained value.
Leadway Assurance Company Limited is sponsoring the event for the fourth consecutive year, making it one of the more consistent private sector commitments to the creative manufacturing space in recent memory.
Nigeria’s leather sector sits at the intersection of agriculture, manufacturing, fashion, and export potential. It employs artisans, supports SMEs, and feeds into a global industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars. The gap between what Nigeria produces at the raw material stage and what it captures at the finished goods stage represents one of the more visible examples of the value retention problem that runs across several of Nigeria’s commodity sectors.
Olusakin Labeodan, MD/CEO of Leadway Pensure, framed the sponsorship in those terms. “The leather industry provides huge opportunities for our young entrepreneurs and creative minds to be part of a vibrant, resilient and incrementally growing value retention economy,” he said.
This edition of the fair will focus on strengthening Africa’s craftsmanship industry and accelerating value creation across the manufacturing chain. Exhibitors, designers, manufacturers, and industry stakeholders are expected across the two days.
The fair alone will not fix a structural export problem that has persisted for decades. But as a platform for the people trying to build something different inside that problem, it is a useful place to start.
The ninth edition opens in Lagos on June 27.
