The world retail congress Africa has announced the Okunoren twins as winners of its prestigious Retail Innovation awards. The Okunoren twins who are one of Africa’s most respected clothing entrepreneurs will be formally crowned on the 18th of November 2014 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The congress which is the only dedicated strategic retail congress specific to the Pan-African markets is part of the global leading World Retail Congress Series, which has welcomed over 5000 CEO and VP level international retailers in the past eight years and includes international Latin American, China and Asian Congresses.

The founding aim of the Retail Congress Africa is to create a platform for domestic, regional and international retail industry leaders, politicians and policy drivers alike to come together to be able to debate and discuss the most important issues facing their businesses and customers – from the economy to issues such as sustainability, world trade agreements and opportunities for growth.

This Series brings together the global retail industry’s most influential business leaders and decision makers to challenge current thinking, unveil the latest innovations, investigate regional trends and shape the direction of retail.

Since 2013, the Retail Congress Africa Lifetime Achievement Award celebrates pioneers in best practice and innovation in the retail industry. This year the Congress has introduced the Retail Innovation Award to celebrate pioneers in creativity and promote retailers who are driving change and growth with inspirational vision and foresight. The Congress Advisory Board and senior experienced retailers specially select the recipients of these awards and not influenced by any local body or authority of the recipients.

This year, the CEO of Shoprite Holdings, Whitey Basson is been honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award for his immense contribution to African retail, while Taiwo and Kehinde Okunoren the founders of Nigeria’s biggest menswear clothing company are been honored with the prestigious retail Innovation.

The Okunoren twins who are Nigerian clothing icons introduced their bespoke tailoring to the African market in 2002 and inspired a new spring of menswear designers across Nigeria building on their beginnings of selling designer shirts to fellow students at University, In 2010 the Twins went on to establish Industrial Tailoring & Co and The Shirt Company to manufacture garments for the mass market. The company opened its first bricks and mortar store in 2013 to cater to the growing middle class in the country through a ready-to-wear line, producing 3 ready-to-wear collections a year. The ambitious brand is also set to open 6 stores across Africa over the next 18 months.

The brand has presented menswear retail fashion in a distinguished and groundbreaking style, which is worth celebrating. The Okunoren twins will be collecting their award at the Congress and partaking in a live interview moderated by the congress chairman Thebe Ikalafeng who is the founder and chairman of Brand Africa.

Some of the personalities confirmed to speak at the Congress are Greg Solomon, managing director, McDonald’s South Africa, Christine Service, senior vice president, country manager, The Walt Disney Company Africa, Nike Ogunlesi CEO and founder Ruff ‘N’ Tumble and Tony Batlló, expansion general manager, Mango