Four years ago, when Ugo Udezue quit his luxurious job as an agent for the National Basketball Association (NBA) at a top company in the United States, he never thought he would become the first and only company to officially equip African sportswear. Pioneer. The team that participated in the Japanese Olympics this year.

At least, that was not the original plan.

If the client list includes players from the Golden State Warriors to the Brooklyn Nets, it will definitely be easier to stay in California. After all, Udezue has been in the United States since the mid-1990s, when a basketball scholarship lured him from his hometown of Nigeria.

But after his success in the United States, his homeland ushered in new opportunities.

The former player’s agent told Al Jazeera: “I came back to Africa with the idea of ??creating a continental league comparable to the NBA.” “All the best sports talents come from Africa, even like LeBron James. People, their ancestry can also be traced back to the motherland (sic).”

Udezue, who calls himself Pan-African, is keen to unify the African continent through business and sports.

The Nigerian Olympic basketball team heading to Tokyo is equipped by AFA Sports [Courtesy of AFA Sports]

The 43-year-old said: “For Africans, the opportunity to showcase the African continent is very important. Africa is suitable for business. If the product is good, Africans will spend money to buy it.”

In 2017, when his next business venture sprouted, Udezue was in the throes of establishing the Continental Basketball League. At that time, just to meet the need for extra kits and equipment in the league, the league has expanded to 10 teams from six African countries.

“When we started the league, I noticed that basketballs were slippery because they were designed for air-conditioned stadiums. We all know that there are not many basketballs of this kind in Africa,” Udezue said realistically. “So I went to China to develop a A ball that can absorb sweat, and as a result we immediately saw fewer mistakes in the game.”

The self-described spoilers did not stop there.

“Based on my experience as a player, I realized that most Africans have flat feet, so we have also developed’breezes’ shoes that adapt to this situation to reduce the need for separate insoles.”

This constitutes the premise of AFA Sports (meaning “Africa for Africa”) and has developed into one of the most popular sports product sales and apparel companies on the African continent.

“Our slogan is’This is ours’,” Udezue said of the traditional community culture on the African continent. “We are trying to build something impersonal.”

In fact, the name “LIV (54)” is even engraved on one of the first lines of the AFA. There are 54 flags representing the number of countries on the African continent.

‘LIV (54)’ is engraved on the first line of AFA Sports. There are 54 flags representing the number of countries on the African continent [Courtesy of AFA Sports]

Prepare for the epidemic

It turns out that Udezue’s vision is not just idealistic. This is also strategic.

Last year, when the COVID-19 pandemic brought global business to a halt, many companies found it difficult to make ends meet. But AFA Sports is well-positioned to take advantage of the sudden shift in consumer tastes, launching a new line of fitness and homewear in 2019.

“When a pandemic breaks out, everyone wants to stay at home and exercise,” Udezu said.

For the African continent, AFA Sports has also established its own factory in Lagos as part of Udezue’s stated mission to reduce Nigeria’s staggering unemployment rate. The official unemployment rate exceeds 32%, but if you take into account the country’s huge informal sector , The situation will be worse.

“Be a Nigerian national [football] The team participated in the 2018 World Cup with a well-known design jersey. It made a lot of money in global sales, but it was not produced in Nigeria,” he exclaimed. “For a country with such a high unemployment rate, This is a huge opportunity. “

When the global supply chain came to a standstill last year, it was decided to produce locally instead of outsourcing abroad.

“Since most of the international airspace was closed at the time and imports were at a standstill, we were very popular because we were the only company that produced and sold affordable sportswear locally,” Udezue said.

Udezue plans to continue to capitalize on this momentum.

While many companies continue to close their operations, AFA Sports-which exports to 20 countries, now has two stores in Lagos and one in Abuja-is planning to expand production.

AFA Sports plans to open a sports shoe factory on the African continent next year, so that its production in Africa will reach 100% [Courtesy of AFA Sports]

He said: “We currently produce about 90% of our production in Africa, and we hope to reach 100% when we officially open a shoe factory in 2022,” he added, adding that the company has created about 800 jobs since its establishment. It is planned that there will be 2,000 tailors by the end of this year.

New products are also in preparation, including AFA Sports’ own trademark afrileisure brand, which will Africanize casual wear.

AFA’s creative director Sam Otigba told Al Jazeera: “We want to modernize what already exists, and Africans will be proud of it, so we are committed to making traditional African clothing such as gowns and jalamia.”

For Udezue to liquidate his savings and sell some of his assets to raise seed funds for AFA Sports, the rewards of the risk are even sweeter. But this is not to say that he did not encounter the obstacles he should have.

For example: the African continent lacks distribution channels to facilitate cross-border trade.

“It is easier to transport from Lagos to London than from Lagos to Nairobi, Kenya,” he explained.

There are other infrastructure challenges. The manufacture of shoe soles requires a lot of reliable electricity. Electricity in Nigeria is sporadic. Although its population (approximately 200 million people) is 20 times that of North Carolina, the country as a whole generates only as much electricity as North Carolina.

Celebrity help

But Udezue has other advantages. Some of Africa’s biggest entertainment stars—from Ghanaian rapper Sarkodie to Nigerian singer-songwriter Patolankin—are endorsing AFA Sports.

“I don’t actually wear clothes from other brands anymore,” Nigerian singer-songwriter Paul Okoye (also known as Rudeboy) told Al Jazeera. “The nature of my job is similar to sports, because I often move around, so I wear AFA at concerts because it is very suitable for the weather here.”

Nigerian singer and songwriter Paul Okoye (also known as Rudeboy) endorses AFA Sports [Courtesy of AFA Sports]

Okoye is now a solo artist with more than 12 million fans on social media platforms and half of Africa’s largest music duo P-Square.

In addition to sponsoring the Nigerian national basketball team participating in the Olympics, AFA Sports also sponsors teams from more than five African countries, and sponsors different football leagues, sports training camps and academies.

“Sports can be a real economic power for the entire African continent,” said Udzu, who was recently appointed chairman of the Anambra Basketball Association in Nigeria’s eighth most populous state.

“We have everything we need here: resources, people,” he said. “I hope we can ignite a fire that will resonate throughout Africa.”