A trademark registered in Rwanda does not automatically travel with a business into Ghana. Move next into Nigeria, and the process can begin again.
For a small company built around a brand, software, technology or another intangible asset, crossing a border can therefore mean navigating another set of rules, registrations and enforcement mechanisms, even as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) seeks to make the continent a single market.
That challenge sat at the heart of Thursday’s Africa IP Day webinar, where legal, trade, technology and private-sector experts examined what happens when increasingly borderless businesses meet intellectual property rights that remain largely territorial.
Desire Loumou, head of the Intellectual Property Rights Division at the AfCFTA Secretariat and moderator of the webinar, framed the question around a continental market bringing together the African Union’s 55 member states. Marie Madeleine Bauret of the Secretariat opened the event.
The problem, speakers suggested, is not that Africa lacks intellectual pr operty institutions. It is that businesses moving across the continent must navigate a patchwork of national systems alongside regional mechanisms such as the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI), and the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO).
From Cameroon, Vanessa Halle-Fonguh, an intellectual property lawyer and partner at Nico Halle & Co. Law Firm, described the landscape as “sophisticated” but fragmented.
“Sometimes, we have IP owners, we have inventors, we have creators, and the first question they ask is, ‘Oh, how do I protect my IP in Africa?’” Halle-Fonguh said.
The better question, she argued, is which African markets matter to the business and which national or regional filing route offers the most effective protection.
When one market meets many systems
That fragmentation carries consequences beyond registration paperwork.
For businesses whose most valuable assets may be trademarks, copyrights or technology, Manasses Mwangi, a Kenyan lawyer and patent agent, argued that intellectual property cannot be separated from regional trade. Brands can reach new markets before the physical products they represent, making protection essential to cross-border expansion.
The challenge also extends to financing. Without greater coherence in how intellectual property is registered, recognized and valued, businesses can struggle to use intangible assets as collateral to secure credit.
The stakes become greater in the digital economy, where borders can disappear for customers while remaining firmly in place for regulation.
Talkmore Chidede, a senior digital trade expert at the AfCFTA Secretariat, pointed to the possibility of a technology company developing a product in Accra and serving consumers across a continental market of 1.4 billion people.
In practice, however, expanding can mean confronting different regulatory regimes, standards and administrative requirements.
The AfCFTA’s intellectual property and digital trade frameworks offer a potential response through greater harmonization, predictability and interoperability so entrepreneurs can protect innovations and operate across markets with more confidence.
But harmonizing rules alone may not solve the problem.
Serwah Prempeh, head of the Just Green Technology Transition Program at the Africa Policy Research Institute, said Africa’s layered IP architecture is compounded by uneven digitization, under-resourced IP offices and limited access to searchable information.
Those weaknesses increase transaction costs, with smaller companies bearing a disproportionate burden. Some already struggle to develop an IP strategy in one jurisdiction, making protection across several markets prohibitively expensive.
The consequences extend to local communities, where gaps in awareness, representation and enforcement can leave traditional knowledge and other community assets vulnerable to exploitation.
From protection to commercial value
For Henry Emejuo, director-general and CEO of the Pan-African Alliance of Small and Medium Industries, the issue comes down to whether existing institutions can function as a coherent commercial system.
He outlined decisions enterprises must make before expanding, including identifying their intellectual assets, prioritizing markets, conducting clearance checks, choosing national, regional or international filing routes, and preparing contracts and enforcement strategies.
The recommendations emerging from the discussion pointed toward simplification rather than another layer of bureaucracy.
Prempeh proposed an “IP facilitation” approach, similar to trade facilitation, to help smaller firms navigate cross-border intellectual property requirements.
Fernando Dos Santos, a former director-general of ARIPO and former head of Mozambique’s Industrial Property Institute, similarly argued for stronger coordination among existing institutions, better-resourced IP offices and gradual harmonization of procedures. Intellectual property, he said, should be treated as an investment and development tool rather than simply a cost.
The enforcement side remains critical. Egyptian judicial and intellectual property expert Mohamed Elzeiny brought the courts and enforcement institutions into the discussion, underscoring that rights on paper ultimately depend on businesses having confidence that they can be enforced.
The concern running through the webinar was therefore not whether Africa has intellectual property systems, but whether those systems can become connected enough to support the borderless commercial activity the AfCFTA is designed to encourage.
Innovators take home Africa IP Day prizes
The day also provided evidence of what is already being built.
In the My IP Story awards, Chioma Rosemary Onyekaba of Nigeria, founder of Beauty and Brains Foundation Printing Press, won gold.
John Wobil of Ghana’s Wobil Technologies Ltd. took silver for agricultural technologies aimed at reducing post-harvest losses and energy costs.
Grace Akatuha of Uganda, founder of Kikazi Agri-Products Ltd., received bronze for her trademarked indigenous food products.
The inaugural SG Prize awarded gold to UP-elect Sal of Benin for solar technology designed to improve neonatal care and reduce neonatal hypothermia.
Biogenics of Cameroon received silver for an agroecological innovation addressing soil degradation, costly agricultural inputs and climate change.
Lumos Laboratories of Nigeria took bronze for patented technology that turns waste into clean energy.
For the AfCFTA, those innovators illustrate both sides of the challenge. Ideas and intellectual assets are already being created across the continent. The next test is making it easier for them to cross borders and remain protected when they do.
As Halle-Fonguh put it, “African businesses are themselves increasingly becoming IP owners and exporters of brands and technology.”
