Brand alert: Walls of Benin
Fellow British-Cameroonian, Chi Atanga talks to CNN about his brand Walls of Benin and some of the issues African start-ups face.
Image: @wallsofbenin_official
Chi Atanga is a British-Cameroonian fashion designer based in Portugal with a menswear brand Walls of Benin.
Atanga is drawn to Cameroon and West Africa, but his first line will be produced in Porto, Portugal, due to access to a skilled work force and reliable infrastructure. “Private enterprise is difficult in Cameroon." Atanga explains to CNN.
So, why did this CNN article with Atanga catch my eye? My interest peaked, firstly because of his British-Cameroonian heritage (I’m British and my father is Cameroonian), but also because of the interesting issue of African start-ups.
Images: @wallsofbenin_official
Hard facts
On the World Bank's 2016 'Doing Business' ranking, Cameroon placed 172 out of 189 countries. So what are the key issues with Cameroon and other African countries?
· The ease of trading across borders,
· Expensive electricity connections
· Poor transport infrastructure
But what does this really mean? It means that all of the above, will add huge amounts of cost to manufacturing businesses in much of Sub-Saharan Africa and often results in struggles to compete with businesses in other regions.
But there are hopes that fashion and other creative areas could help jump this hurdle because of the demand for unique designs from Africa.
However, Atanga clarifies: "We don't want to use Africa as a gimmick. We need to have scale, we need to have a name and a reputation."
Images: @wallsofbenin_official
And the good news?
US Investors seem interested and Atanga is hoping to fund his first line through a crowdfunding campaign in December.
After that, he will return to looking for a base in Africa, most likely in Rwanda and Ethiopia, which have created 'special economic zones' that offer tax breaks for light manufacturing businesses.
Ethiopia also hopes that increasing costs in Asian markets will make its relatively inexpensive labour force an attractive draw.
To read the full CNN article, click here.