AfCFTA's Impact on Nigeria's Intellectual Property Landscape and Economic Growth

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) represents a cornerstone initiative of the African Union’s Agenda 2063, designed to unify Africa's diverse markets through a comprehensive trade agreement. With the potential to become the largest free trade area globally, AfCFTA connects over 1.3 billion people across 55 countries, collectively boasting a gross domestic product (GDP) of approximately US$3.4 trillion. This integration is projected to lift 30 million people out of extreme poverty.

The Agreement establishing AfCFTA was signed on March 21, 2018, and came into force on May 30, 2019, after ratification by 24 countries. As of April 19, 2021, 54 countries had signed the Agreement, with 36—including Nigeria—having deposited their instruments of ratification with the African Union Commission Chairperson. Trading under AfCFTA officially commenced on January 1, 2021, although negotiations on specific protocols and trade instruments continue.

AfCFTA’s legal framework comprises three layers: the main Agreement serving as a framework, the Protocols, and the Annexes, Guidelines, and Schedules to these Protocols. Phase I negotiations resulted in the Protocols on Trade in Goods, Trade in Services, and Dispute Settlement entering into force alongside the Agreement. Phase II negotiations, delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, are set to address Protocols on Investment, Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs), and Competition Policy.

The Agreement outlines eight primary objectives, including creating a single and liberalized market for goods and services, facilitating capital and people movement, establishing a continental customs union, promoting sustainable socio-economic development and gender equality, enhancing economic competitiveness, and resolving challenges related to multiple memberships to expedite integration.

Beyond these goals, AfCFTA aims to boost Africa’s economic output to approximately $29 trillion by 2050 and increase intra-African trade by 52.3%. Central to this vision is the role of intellectual property (IP) and intellectual property rights (IPR), which underpin innovation, creativity, knowledge, and technology—key drivers of the global economy.

Research indicates that the largest economies are heavily reliant on IP. For developing countries like Nigeria, IP can catalyze economic development by fostering innovation. Achieving this requires an enabling environment supported by robust IP policies that protect creators and investors, ensuring they can recover investments and benefit from their innovations.

Nigeria exemplifies this potential with its dynamic creative sector, notably Nollywood, the Nigerian film industry. A 2016 IMF report valued Nollywood at ₦853.9 billion ($7.2 billion), accounting for 1.42% of Nigeria’s GDP and ranking as the country’s second-largest employment source after agriculture. Nigeria’s creative industries extend beyond film to music, publishing, software, and manufacturing, all sectors ripe for growth.

Despite these opportunities, Nigeria currently lacks a comprehensive IP policy to integrate the economic value of IP into its National Economic Plan. This gap results in insufficient recognition and utilization of IP and IPRs by policymakers as vital tools for national development.

Facilitating the cross-border flow of knowledge-rich goods and services is increasingly central to development and trade policies, as reflected in the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).

The forthcoming Protocol on Intellectual Property Rights within AfCFTA’s Phase II negotiations holds significant promise. According to the World Bank, this Protocol could act as a catalyst for technology transfer and diffusion, driving Africa’s economic transformation from a resource-based model to one propelled by knowledge, information, and ideas.

As Nigeria and other African nations navigate these developments, establishing strong IP frameworks aligned with AfCFTA’s objectives will be crucial to unlocking innovation-led growth and maximizing the continent’s economic potential.