Build the Infrastructure for African Fashion to Win on Global Marketplaces

Nigerian, Ghanaian, and Senegalese designers who try to sell on global marketplaces like ASOS, Farfetch, or Amazon encounter the same set of barriers: payment in currencies they cannot receive easily, returns policies that do not account for bespoke and made-to-order items, size grading systems based on European bodies, and logistics from Lagos or Accra that cannot compete on delivery times. Your challenge is to design a marketplace integration platform that gives African fashion designers access to global e-commerce channels while handling the Africa-specific friction points. Focus on three specific barriers from the list above and design concrete solutions for each. Submit a product design and market entry document (max 12 pages) including: which three barriers you address, your technical solutions for each, a logistics model, how payment conversion and hedging would work, and a plan to onboard 50 African fashion brands onto one global marketplace within 12 months. Judging criteria: 35% quality of barrier solutions, 30% logistics and payment design, 20% platform integration feasibility, 15% onboarding plan.