The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is seeking to turn intellectual property into a bigger source of investment and cross-border business as the bloc moves to implement its first continent-wide framework for protecting African innovations, brands and creative works.
The AfCFTA Secretariat made the case at Africa IP Day 2026 under the theme “Growing Business Under the AfCFTA IP Ecosystem”, recognising six innovators, entrepreneurs and creators from Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda for developing intellectual property with commercial and social value.
The event was the first Africa IP Day observance since the adoption of the AfCFTA Protocol on Intellectual Property Rights and eight of its nine annexes, establishing a continental framework intended to reduce differences in intellectual property rules across African markets.
The framework is designed to support the protection, commercialisation and expansion of intangible assets across the AfCFTA market, potentially making it easier for African businesses to derive value from patents, trademarks, brands, designs and creative works beyond their home countries.
“Africa’s ideas, brands, inventions and creative works should not lose their value at the border,” AfCFTA Secretary-General Wamkele Mene said.
“With the Protocol on Intellectual Property Rights and its Annexes, we now have the continental framework to ensure they do not,” he said, adding that protecting African innovation is a business, investment and trade imperative.
Financing the intangible economy
The push comes in support of entrepreneurs who are increasingly building businesses around assets that are difficult to value and finance using traditional approaches.
At the event, policymakers, intellectual property specialists, entrepreneurs, private-sector representatives and finance experts examined the challenges of growing intangible-asset businesses in a continent where intellectual property systems have historically been fragmented.
A panel focused on how the AfCFTA IP ecosystem could improve the protection, commercialisation, access to finance and cross-border expansion of businesses whose value is based largely on intangible assets.
For businesses operating across multiple African markets, differences in national intellectual property regimes can increase the cost and complexity of protecting an innovation or brand. A common continental framework could help address some of those barriers, although its economic impact will depend on how effectively the rules are implemented and accessed by businesses.
The Secretariat said the framework is intended to create an inclusive intellectual property ecosystem that supports intra-African trade.
Turning ideas into trade
The recognition of six innovators from five African countries highlighted the commercial potential of intellectual property beyond traditional manufacturing and commodity exports.
The AfCFTA Secretariat’s emphasis on intellectual property also reflects a broader effort to increase the value of African products and services traded within the continent. Mene said the next challenge is ensuring that the framework is usable by the innovators and enterprises it was designed to serve.
That will require businesses to understand how to protect and commercialise their intellectual property, while financial institutions and investors develop greater capacity to assess intangible assets as potential sources of value and collateral.
The continental framework therefore represents an important policy step, but its success will ultimately be measured by whether African innovators can protect their ideas, attract capital and sell their products and services across borders without losing the value of their intellectual property.
