2024 Africa IP Summit Positions IP Rights as Catalyst for SDGs in Africa
The fifth Annual Africa Intellectual Property Rights Summit, themed “Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs): The Catalyst for Sustainable Development Goals in Africa,” came about November 28-30, 2024, on the Serena Hotel in Kigali, Rwanda.
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KIGALI, Rwanda, 03rd December 2024 -/African Media Agency(AMA)/- The Summit introduced collectively policymakers, trade leaders, authorized consultants, lecturers, and innovators who explored the crucial function of Intellectual Property (IP) in fostering financial progress, innovation, and sustainable growth in Africa.
The 2024 All Africa IP Summit united stakeholders from numerous sectors and backgrounds who brainstormed methods for addressing essential challenges plaguing Africa’s IPR ecosystem, proffering actionable options to the continent’s IPR-related challenges to make sure IP works for Africa and Africans and exploring the function of the IPR ecosystem in realizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Africa.
In his remarks, AfCFTA Secretary-General Wamkele Mene (represented by Dr. Tsotetsi Makong, Chief Technical Advisor, Capacity Building, Trade Policy, and Negotiations) emphasised the pressing want for Africa to leverage IPR for financial transformation and questioned why, regardless of quite a few instruments offered by international entities just like the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Africa stays on the rock-bottom by way of IP utilization.
Mr Mene advocated a complete ecosystem integrating IPR with commerce, manufacturing, and worth chains underneath AfCFTA, underscoring the significance of aligning IP with Africa’s broader financial agenda.
“We should have a model focusing on administrative, institutional, and regulatory capacity. I therefore urge African leaders to seize the moment amid global shifts in trade and technology. The world is remaking itself and we should not let this moment pass us by. We should also conclude the AfCFTA IP Protocol negotiations by 2025 to secure Africa’s economic future,” Mene urged.
In his goodwill message H.E Olusegun Awolowo, National Coordinator of Nigeria’s AfCFTA Coordination Office (represented by Mr. Olusegun Olutayo, Lead, Trade Enablement) careworn Kigali’s historic function in shaping Africa’s financial narrative, describing it because the birthplace of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), highlighting the pivotal function of IP in Africa’s transformation. He mentioned defending IPRs, by means of patents, logos, and copyrights is crucial for unlocking Africa’s financial potential.
“The future of Africa’s economy rests squarely on our ability to safeguard these intellectual assets as there is a great prospect for job creation and economic growth. Protection of these rights is key, not merely to the existence of rights. It is time to popularize intellectual property rights across the continent, therefore, innovators may pass on, but their innovations must endure,” Awolowo identified.
Awolowo proposed two strategic suggestions for growing IPRs in Africa: growing a Pan-African IP technique aligned with AfCFTA targets and strengthening capacity-building initiatives in IP regulation and innovation administration.
In his remarks, Dr. Sylvance Okoth, Executive Secretary of the East African Science and Technology Commission (represented by Prof. Tatien Masharabu), emphasised that Science, Technology, and Innovation are on the coronary heart of the East African Community’s (EAC) Vision 2050. As a part of this imaginative and prescient, EASTECO has developed the EAC Regional IP Policy (2023–2030) to create a dynamic IP atmosphere that drives socioeconomic progress in East Africa.
Dr Okoth careworn the significance of IPRs in incentivizing creativity, facilitating expertise switch, and enhancing worth addition. “A harmonized regional IP framework will ease international trade, strengthen innovation ecosystems, and bolster infrastructure development. “Intellectual property rights are a cornerstone for social, cultural, and economic advancement, driving sustainable development across the African region, thus, I call on stakeholders to embrace IP as a catalyst for growth.”
In her remarks, Ms. Altayework Tedla Desta of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) Academy, described the Africa IP Summit as a novel alternative to unlock Africa’s immense potential in an idea-driven financial system, emphasizing the crucial function of mental property (IP) in Africa’s growth, notably by empowering its youth by means of the mixing of IP training into the curriculum of faculties, faculties, and universities.
Ms. Desta careworn that IP ought to prolong past authorized frameworks to science, engineering, and enterprise to allow younger innovators to retain the worth of their creativity including that if nurtured, managed, and guarded, innovations will profit Africa. “The WIPO Academy is committed to advancing IP knowledge in Africa through skills development, focusing on cutting-edge areas like AI and technology. The next generation must be knowledgeable about IP to compete globally.”
The 2024 All Africa IP Summit concluded with a dedication from all delegates to proceed advocating for IP-driven options to Africa’s most urgent growth challenges. The climax of the Summit was the choice of the host nation for the Summit’s 2025 version by means of an open voting course of. Senegal emerged first with over 54% of the votes adopted by Kenya (29%) after which Uganda (17%). Thus, the sixth All Africa IP Summit will likely be held in Dakar, Senegal come November 12-14th, 2025.
Are you curious about attending or sponsoring the sixth Annual Africa IP Summit in Dakar, Senegal? Contact africaipsummit@it-rc.org or +2348180381825 (WhatsApp).
Distributed by African Media Agency (AMA) on behalf on Africa IP Summit.
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Source : African Media Agency (AMA)
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