I have this unusual habit of always absolving myself in deep thought whenever I am in a public event. I tend to observe the activities of attendees more than I participate in the main event.
During the first week of October, I attended the Anambra fashion show titled AFE- poetically crafted to rhyme with “afe” the Igbo word for clothing. #afe2023 is the second edition of the expo that has now become an annual event in Anambra. The first edition was in 2022 which I also attended held at the International Conference Centre, Awka. AFE aims to bring the creativity of Anambra fashion designers and mavericks to the fore.
Usually, these kinds of events are left to Lagos and Abuja and are uncommon for Anambra and the South East
During this year’s event, I couldn’t help but notice the large number of Gen-Z who turned up for the event with visible excitement written all over their faces. I engaged some of them who couldn’t hide their joy with such an event being held in Anambra and were eagerly expecting that of next year- I heard one say ‘ make I die if I miss that of next year.
In truth, the Anambra Fashion Expo is elaborately packaged and organised, only the environment gives it away, if not you would mistake it for a fashion show in Paris.
Often, we foreclose the ease of doing business to some complex economic data that are often hard to measure due to how ambiguous they are. While it is true that investors look at this data, it is also true that investors look at some other form of vanity metrics.
A prospective investor seeking out news on Anambra is most likely going to be more confident in investing if he reads a news article speaking about a successful fashion expo in Anambra than that speaking about crimes in the state. Positive information about any location will always have a way of influencing an investor’s investment decision for that location.
Another inference is that the more happy people are in a place, the more unlikely they are to migrate out of the location. The SE is quickly turning into a pariah state for young people. In their droves, they migrate to Lagos, a state they consider more liberal to their exuberance. A loss for SE is Lagos’s gain. The Anambra Fashion Expo, unintended, might reverse this if the programme and others in such design are sustained.
If young people find out that they can be happy in Anambra; that the exposure and network they seek to gain from such events in Lagos can be gotten in Anambra, the less likely they are to migrate and Anambra will have their ingenuity and creativity to tap from in its quest to transform the state. Anambra must do all it can to retain its young people within the state, hence activities which factor their exuberance should be tolerated to make them more comfortable in the state.
Lagos understands this. This is while the Governors of the state make themselves available at events which target the creative sectors championed by young people. Lagos understands that by making young people happy they can extract their creativity and ingenuity for use in the state.
Thankfully, it appears Soludo understands this often unspoken aspect of investment. I hope AFE will spur more virtue-signalling events that will make prospective investors see Anambra as an investment decision.