Proudly Made in Aba

Aba, a commercial center in the Eastern part of Nigeria is an interesting paradox: It is a town of enterprising young people with tremendous potential to create jobs through entrepreneurship in key areas of leatherworks, shoemaking and fashion design. Unfortunately, the city lacks proper infrastructure and government investment to make it thrive. One challenge that is faced by entrepreneurs in Aba is that of perception. There is a general belief that products and goods made in Aba are of substandard and inferior quality. As such many Nigerians do not patronize these entrepreneurs but prefer to embrace goods imported into the country from places like China and Korea. This has had an adverse effect on the economic growth of the city and has made it difficult for the existing businesses to grow. **The Disruptive Idea** Empower the major manufacturing and trade clusters and stakeholders in Aba and Aba area to build a brand (area brand) that will be recognized the world over for export quality. This brand will be known as Proudly MADE IN ABA. This has led to the current "Proudly Made in Aba" campaign, sponsored by Ford Foundation which kicked off formally in May 2017. Our campaign was designed to expose the overlooked enterprise, resilience, craftsmanship and availability of skilled labour to create desire from potential customers, investors and the world. The campaign went viral on social media, generating over $150,000 worth of media mentions, placing Aba under the nation's microscope as the centre for economic growth. The government has begun developing initiatives to help empower the entrepreneurs in the region and have adopted the iconography we developed as the official icon for all Made in Aba initiatives.