AfCFTA Faces Challenge of Harmonizing Africa’s Diverse Intellectual Property Systems to Support Cross-Border Innovation

Africa’s innovators are expanding their businesses across national borders faster than intellectual property (IP) protections can keep pace. This disconnect poses significant challenges for companies relying on trademarks, copyrights, technology, and other intangible assets as they navigate a patchwork of IP systems across the continent.

A trademark registered in one country, such as Rwanda, does not automatically extend protection when a business moves into another market like Ghana or Nigeria. Each jurisdiction requires separate registrations and enforcement mechanisms, creating a complex and costly environment for small and medium enterprises.

This issue was central to the Africa IP Day webinar held on Thursday, where legal, trade, technology, and private-sector experts examined the tension between increasingly borderless businesses and the territorial nature of IP rights.

Desire Loumou, head of the Intellectual Property Rights Division at the AfCFTA Secretariat and moderator of the event, framed the discussion around the challenge of creating a continental market encompassing the African Union’s 55 member states. Marie Madeleine Bauret of the AfCFTA Secretariat opened the webinar.

Speakers agreed that Africa does not lack IP institutions but rather faces fragmentation due to multiple national systems alongside regional organizations such as the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI) and the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO).

Vanessa Halle-Fonguh, an intellectual property lawyer and partner at Nico Halle & Co. Law Firm in Cameroon, described the IP landscape as “sophisticated” yet fragmented. She noted that IP owners and creators often ask how to protect their IP “in Africa,” but the more practical question is which specific markets matter most and which filing routes—national or regional—offer the most effective protection.

Kenyan lawyer and patent agent Manasses Mwangi emphasized that intellectual property protection is inseparable from regional trade. Brands often reach new markets before the physical products they represent, making robust IP rights essential for cross-border expansion.

The challenges extend beyond protection to financing. Without harmonized registration, recognition, and valuation of IP assets, businesses struggle to leverage intangible assets as collateral for credit, limiting growth opportunities.

The stakes are even higher in the digital economy, where customer borders blur but regulatory boundaries remain firm. Talkmore Chidede, a senior digital trade expert at the AfCFTA Secretariat, illustrated this with the example of a technology company developing a product in Accra that aims to serve consumers across a continental market of 1.4 billion people.

In practice, however, such expansion confronts divergent regulatory regimes, standards, and administrative requirements across countries.

AfCFTA’s intellectual property and digital trade frameworks offer a potential solution by promoting greater harmonization, predictability, and interoperability. These frameworks aim to enable entrepreneurs to protect their innovations and operate confidently across multiple markets.

Serwah Prempeh, head of the Just Green Technology Transition Program at the Africa Policy Research Institute, highlighted that Africa’s layered IP architecture is compounded by uneven digitization, under-resourced IP offices, and limited access to searchable IP information.

These systemic weaknesses increase transaction costs, disproportionately burdening smaller companies. Many struggle to develop an IP strategy even within a single jurisdiction, making protection across several markets prohibitively expensive.

The webinar underscored that while AfCFTA’s vision of a single continental market is ambitious, realizing it requires addressing the fragmented IP landscape. Harmonized IP systems could unlock significant trade and investment opportunities for Africa’s innovators and entrepreneurs, especially in the growing digital economy.