By How American company got contract to manufacture Nigerian Olympic attires but paid Nigerian designers to produce same
It’s been weeks since Team Nigeria unceremoniously participated at the Olympics, returning home with zero medals, despite the government’s claim to have spent over N9 billion, and with 88 competitors appearing in 22 sporting events.
What is rather unfortunate according to observers is that despite the abysmal performance of the squad, no official reprimanding has been done, neither has any person tendered a resignation. Everyone seems to have moved on like nothing happened.
Sport pundits have also related the failure of the Nigerian delegation to negligence on the part of administrators in the sports ministry and participating federations.
Findings by BlackBox Nigeria have uncovered that while an American company was contracted to design all the outfits for Team Nigeria, the company in question had to return to the country to look for local designers to get the job done.
Actively Black, owned by former Basketball player, Lanny Smith was awarded the contract to produce kits for the Nigerian team in an undisclosed arrangement which includes making attire for the opening, closing and award ceremonies as well as all the outfits and uniforms used by the Nigerian delegation during the games.
The company which was established barely four years ago with hitherto no experience at the Olympics or any major international event for ceremonial outfits, returned to Nigeria to seek local designers to help them achieve the designs. Actively Black subcontracted the production to Nigerian designers.
Many Nigerians celebrated the local Adire outfits used during the opening and closing ceremonies but were unaware that the production was awarded to an American company with no knowledge of local attires or the country’s tradition.
Per findings by this publication, Afrikstabel and Lekki Garment Factory were engaged to achieve the production of the designs which many applauded. While Afriksabel owned by Ifebuche Madu handled the creation of the fabrics through the local tie and dye, the latter sewed and embellished the outfits which were then taken to the US where they were packaged and delivered to the Nigerian contingent.
While the goal of the designs according to Lanny Smith is to authentically represent the Nigerian identity, many are of the opinion that the assignment should have gone directly to the Nigerian companies who eventually made it happen.
“Authenticity is at the foundation of our brand, so we wanted to ensure that there were design elements that authentically represented Nigeria,” Lanny said to Forbes in an interview.
The 2024 edition of the Olympics have ended with no possible discussions about causes of the epic failure of the Nigerian contingent neither are there discussions around early preparations towards the next edition. Just like preparation for this year’s edition started late, it doesn’t appear like the country’s administrators are ready to do things differently.
BlackBox Nigeria further gathered that the production of the outfits was contracted to the American company barely four months to the commencement of the July games in Paris.
“Designing for the Olympics is no small feat, and for Actively Black, the challenges were compounded by time constraints. While other brands had years to prepare, Smith and his team had only four months to bring their vision to life,” Forbes reported days ago.
Observers who spoke to BlackBox Nigeria expressed disappointment in the government which has continuously preached increased patronage of the local industry through the “buy Naija to grow the Naira” campaigns.
Many are of the opinion that it would have been cheaper if indigenous producers were engaged to handle the manufacturing of the outfits. This is in line with the government’s claim of reducing cost of doings things including governance but very little has been seen in this regard.
Others argue that engaging local producers would have also further improved the Nigerian manufacturing industry who would have had the experience of producing kits for one of the most important events in the world. According to this school of thought, this will then directly help improve the Nigerian economy.
While the Sports Minister, John Owan-Enoh only disclosed that President Bola Tinubu approved the N12 billion budget presented by his ministry, no detail was given as regards the breakdown and how the money was expended asides information that N9 billion was for the Summer Olympics while N3 billion was allocated for the Paralympics.
It has been two weeks since the Summer Games came to an end in Paris yet no financial report has been given by the administrators.
Nigerians, however, continue to emphasize on the need to include the local industries in the production of gears for the national teams.
Countries like South Africa, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Kenya, Egypt, and Liberia all had some of their outfits produced by local brands and these creations have continued to receive commendation from their compatriots and across the global community. Perhaps, Nigeria can learn a thing or two from these continental neighbors.
At the moment, Actively Black continues to generate revenues from sales of the merchandise produced for Team Nigeria and this could have also been additional wealth created at home.
