The Secretary General of the Parliamentary Assembly of La Francophonie (APF), Jacques Krabal visited the International African Textile Fair (SITA), on Wednesday November 25, 2020 in Ouagadougou.

In its policy of promoting African textiles and mainly the local processing of cotton in Burkina Faso, the International African Textile Fair (SITA) continues its advocacy with international institutions. On Wednesday, November 25, 2020, he received at his headquarters in Ouagadougou, the Secretary General of the Parliamentary Assembly of La Francophonie (APF), Jacques Krabal. After visiting the Fair's premises and speaking with a weaver, the French parliamentarian, on a contact mission in the context of the coupled elections in Burkina Faso, specified that the Commissioner General of SITA, Abdoulaye Mossé, is "the 'ambassador n°1 of African textiles'. "The Parliamentary Assembly of the Francophonie wanted to meet him to bring the cotton, the fabric and the culture of Burkina Faso, Africa and the G5 Sahel", he argued. He continued that the APF has decided to support the promoter of SITA in order to demonstrate that French-speaking Africa, which is among the largest cotton producers, must become one of the largest suppliers of textile products through the transformation of this raw material, to create added value, jobs and foreign currency for the economy. “It makes sense to provide students in Burkina Faso and the sub-region with clothes made in the country rather than exporting them. It makes sense for sustainable development, the local economy and to fight unemployment,” he said. As for the cultural aspect, Jacques Krabal said that the transformation of Burkinabè cotton involves innovation in fashion. Concretely, he added, this support will focus on the modernization of production tools, the linking of SITA and players in transformation and Burkinabe fashion with those of France and Europe, the training of actors and the provision of energy at lower cost.
As for the Commissioner General of SITA, he positively appreciated this visit by the Secretary General of the APF. “When we promote African textiles, the visit of coveted personalities like the SG of the APF is a huge opportunity because he is one of the men who have the ability to put us in contact with other players in the area that are ahead of us," he noted. For Abdoulaye Mossé, Burkina Faso does not have oil, but cotton and we must work on local cotton processing. In the land of honest men, he noted, the importation of school uniforms (khaki) for 4,000,000 students causes the national economy to lose more than 12 billion CFA francs per year. “We have been producing cotton for decades, but processing it is a problem. We believe that together, at the level of the Francophonie, we can go far, ”he concluded. As a reminder, after a 6th edition in 2020 in Malabo in Equatorial Guinea, the 7th edition of the International African Textile Fair is scheduled for Djibouti in 2022.