Critical design thinker, Titi Ogufere, has continued to champion an eco-system where creatives and visionaries converge to imagine a new African design language.
Last year, at the Nahous, Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos, she hosted the 2025 edition of Design Week Lagos, where African Interior Design Charter was signed by 15 countries, “it was a unifying framework for collaboration across the continent.
Alongside, she hosted the Dialogue in Design and Development, in partnership with Association of Consulting Architects and Interior Designers Association of Nigeria. It brought together developers, architects, and policymakers to foster collective innovation.
Ogufere said, “Design Week Lagos is a city-wide celebration of design, innovations, and the creative spirit shaping Africa’s future. What began as a vision to build a recognisable design culture has grown into an ecosystem where ideas evolve into industries and creativity powers economic transformation.”
She said creative come together because of the belief in industrialising the design industry in Africa, starting from Nigeria. “Nigeria has a large creative youth population and we want them to show their creative skills.”
Oguefere added: “The government and everyone should pay attention to us because if we want Nigeria to industrialise, we need the designers and manufacturers”
Last year’s theme, Made in Africa: Shaping Industries, Shaping Futures, reflected a commitment to showcasing how design drives growth and progress across the continent.
An ecosystem of architecture, interior, product design and others, the programme started in 2019 and has been a platform for innovators and up and coming to showcase their creativity. She said: “It has been done in the west. The world was built by designers, inventors and creators. People don’t pay attention to creators but it’s the new oil.”
She added: “I lived in the UK and I see these things work and I decided to bring them to Nigeria.”
Last year’s edition brought together 120 exhibitors who showcased 210 pieces of new ideas.
