Roberta Annan, Kwaku Bediako To Represent Ghana @ Paris Fashion Week

Roberta Annan

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Menswear and Chocolate Clothing, Kwaku Bediako, has emerged winner of the first edition of Joy FM and African Fashion, which was organised by African Fashion Fund, in collaboration with Joy 99.7 FM.

African Fashion Fund and Joy 99.7 FM, a few weeks ago, embarked on a journey to find one lucky Ghanaian fashion designer to represent Ghana at and participate in this year’s Paris Fashion Week. Over 800 designers applied to participate in the competition.

The founder of African Fashion Fund, Roberta Annan, who was excited about the outcome of the cooperation with Joy FM, explained that it was difficult settling on the 10 finalists.

All 10 finalists, namely Abrantie, Avonsige, Meg Signature, Esowba Couture, Kofi Akotuah, Sante Trends, Chevelle, Tapaz Trends, Jae GH, Chocolate by Kwaku Bediako, took turns to display their designs to judges – Lexis Bill, Amina Kwei and Virgile Satge, a representative from the French Embassy.

After rounds of questioning, Chocolate Clothing was adjudged the winner.

“We had 10 point criteria; passion, branding, talent, articulation and confidence, presentation, outfit, an occasion for outfit, motivation, colour combination and fit for the model. The highest person got 262 and the least had 180,” Lexis Bill revealed.

Obviously, Chocolate got the highest marks on the judge’s sheet. He was announced the winner of the trip to Paris Fashion Week and Change Summit under the auspices of French President Emmanuel Macron.

Roberta Annan will be among other renowned speakers at the world’s largest positive impact conference, the ChangeNow International Summit for Positive Impact in Paris, France on September 28 and 29 this year.

Roberta Annan is the managing partner of Roberta Annan Capital Partners (RACP), a specialised boutique investment company that specialises in energy infrastructure advisory and investments in sub-Saharan Africa.

Alongside this company, Roberta founded and leads RAC, a subsidiary of RACP, which focuses on advisory and business development.

A well-recognised consultant in her field, Roberta is the senior market liaison for Fieldstone. One highlight in her career saw Roberta form a partnership with LJ Partnership, a ‘multi-family’ office with US$13 billion assets under its management.

Roberta Annan is an avid philanthropist who is passionate about women’s development opportunities across Africa, starting the African Fashion Fund (AFF) in 2014.

The fund is an incubator to support talented designers from Africa. AFF are in partnership with Parsons School of Design, the prestigious school of fashion design in the United States of America, which is a globally renowned institution at the forefront of design innovation.

Roberta’s work in fashion is extended to her role as the founder of the Frallain Group, a leading promoter of African luxury brands and a provider of risk capital for these brands.