Photo caption from left: Joseph Ory, MD Zenith Exhibition; Ruth kunnuga, MD, Founda Wersche Point Agarica; and
Eniibukun Adebayo, CleanAce Drycleaners, FPDA Chairman during the press briefing on the forth coming Clean Africa Show in Lagos on Thursday .
By Charles Okonji
The Fabric Professionals and Dry Cleaners Association of Nigeria (FPDA) has stated that its Clean Show Africa 2024 conference would expose over 25000 Nigerians dry cleaners to the cleaning and hygiene industry worth over $165 billion.
At a press briefing to herald the conference scheduled to hold on the 28th to 29th of May 2024 in Lagos, themed “Positioning Africa’s fabricare and hygiene industry for excellence” the FPDA Chairman, Enibikun Adebayo, stated that Nigeria’s dry cleaning industry was valued at $8.4 million as at 2019 and was projected to to grow at 6.4 per cent in the next ten years.
“As at 2019, the statistics were clear as Nigeria’s dry cleaning industry was valued at $8.4 million and growing year on year at 6.4 per cent. Even the statistics are looking better than what it was before and it is now left for us to reposition the industry to the global world because nobody is paying attention to this lucrative industry, and this is what we want to address with the conference,” he said.
Stressing the need for collaboration in the cleaning and hygiene industry he said, “This is the dream behind this exhibition. A year ago, we launched the Fabric Professionals and Dry cleaners Association (FPDA) of Nigeria. We are also the platform to educate our members to be better professionals.”
Speaking on the conference, he added that the exhibition would also be focusing on women in the drycleaning business, maintaining that reports reveal drycleaning businesses are better run by women.
In her speech, the Managing Director, Wasche Paint Nigeria, Ruth Okunnuga, said Nigeria’s drycleaning and laundry industry has not been given the necessary support and publicity it deserves.
“This is why we have put together this event to feature all industry experts to have very pertinent discussions on how to create value that is needed to grow the industry. The industry has gone for so long without any proper structure and it is not attracting investment as it should.
“We want to revolutionise the sector to make it attractive for investors and potential professional dry cleaners and stakeholders. The drycleaning industry data is yet to be captured. There is a data lost and one of the objectives of this conference is to help us collect data for proper planning,” she added.
On his part, the Managing Director, Zenith Exhibition, Joseph Oru, noted that FPDA will be using the conference to engage the federal government to establish institutions that would train dry cleaners to become professionals in the industry.
“It is an industry where someone can earn and make ends meet, so either in terms of vocational study or capacity building or establishing a dry cleaning school,” he averred.
