 Twenty fashion designers who took part in the U.S. State Department's International Visitors Leadership Program have been sponsored and honored by the U.S. Consulate General in Lagos. Jacinta Obuquo was at the reception held for them. Fashion designers are beneficiaries of the International Visitors Leadership Program, a U.S. Department of State Professional Exchange Program. Today, the 20 of them are being celebrated by U.S. Consulate General in Lagos, following the completion of the IVLP. In the place of the typical trip to the United States, they took part in a virtual fellowship for three weeks, connecting with their counterparts outside Nigeria and enriching their knowledge of entrepreneurship, business development and innovation. The goal of this particular project was to connect Nigerian fashion designers to representatives of the U.S. fashion industry for mentoring and connections, hearing them skills and knowledge to increase their sales and build their brand. But networking is key and so let me encourage all of our IVLPs, please came up with your contacts, please, you know, hand them the degree you need to, because we want you to take full advantage of this program. The more we use whatever we have, the more we use it. The better for us, we will develop and we will take care of all those people, all those who are without jobs. The U.S. Consulate General took time to admire the participants' designs and gave them their IVLP certificates. This program has really given me confidence to be proud of the product that is coming from my state because this fabric you see here, the actual care that we have here is actually made in the United States. So that is one of the ways we contribute to the economy of Nigeria. This is a rafia skirt made with the traditional rafia weaving method. We basically use the traditional loom in making this. So this is my own way of preserving the African art. Paris Oluwashi, a male fashion designer, while relaying his experience in the program, believed fashion should not be dominated by women. We just want men to look beautiful because the narrative around men has been that men are really not fashionable. When you talk about fashion, you think about women, but we are occupying this space to change the narrative. The thrust here is that Nigeria can take advantage of global economic dynamics by providing a more suitable environment for fashion businesses to thrive. Jacinta Obuco for Plus TV Africa.