AfCFTA–All Africa IP Summit Partnership Game-changer for Africa’s IP Landscape

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat has confirmed a strategic partnership with the 6th All Africa Intellectual Property (IP) Summit, scheduled for November 12th to 14th 2025 in Dakar, Senegal.

This partnership, which aligns the Summit’s mission with AfCFTA’s ambitious agenda to harmonize intellectual property rules across the continent, promises to be a game-changer for Africa’s IP landscape, facilitating smoother trade, investment, and innovation flows.

A statement by the AAIPS 2025 Secretariat says the partnership explicitly links Africa’s trade and IP agenda with the Summit’s theme, “Building an Inclusive IP Ecosystem for Africa’s Future”, which seeks to leverage IP to drive development, innovation, and regional integration.

Why AfCFTA-AAIPS 2025 Partnership Matter?

• Bridging IP and Trade for Inclusive Growth

The AfCFTA is the world’s largest free trade area and Africa’s flagship trade integration initiative; hence, a robust IP framework is critical to its success. To this end, the AfCFTA Protocol on Intellectual Property Rights aims to harmonize IP rules and standards, fostering inclusive growth and sustainable development by enabling a unified African market. This objective aligns with the aspirations of Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want, which envisions an Africa based on inclusive growth and sustainable development. 

The Protocol covers a wide range of IP rights—including patents, trademarks, copyrights, traditional knowledge, and emerging technologies—and seeks to balance robust protection with access to knowledge and technology transfer. IP being at the center of trade, innovation, and development, this partnership promises to transform AAIPS 2025’s role in ensuring the evolving continental IP landscape impacts Africa’s broader economic and development priorities.

“The AfCFTA Secretariat is actively working to identify and bridge systematic gaps and weaknesses in the existing IP framework across the continent. The goal is to develop an inclusive, participatory, and efficient IP system that supports intra-Africa trade,” a statement by the AfCFTA Secretariat says.

The 6th AAIPS will explore and demystify the AfCFTA Protocol on Intellectual Property Rights and its annexes. These annexes, currently under negotiation, aim to harmonize IP laws and principles across State Parties. As AfCFTA Secretary-General Wamkele Mene has emphasised, “implementing the IP Rights Protocol [is] a key step in developing a robust generic pharmaceutical manufacturing base in Africa”. In other words, IP rules will support emerging industries and value chains across the continent.

AAIPS- AfCFTA Partnership for Africa’s IP Future.

The partnership between the AAIPS 2025 and the AfCFTA Secretariat reflects a shared commitment to building an inclusive IP ecosystem that supports Africa’s trade and development efforts. The adoption of the AfCFTA IP Protocol in February 2023 means the continent has already taken a significant step toward harmonising IP regimes to facilitate innovation, protect African creativity, and support intra-African trade.

The partnership for the upcoming Summit ensures that the IP agenda is fully integrated into the broader goals of the AfCFTA, promoting competitiveness, industrialization, and value addition across borders. In his remarks at AAIPS 2024, the AfCFTA Secretary General, represented by Dr. Tsotetsi Makong, stressed the importance of institutional, regulatory, and purposeful infrastructural capacity to effectively implement IP policies. Watch part of his address here.

Moreover, AAIPS 2025 will convene a diverse range of stakeholders—including IP and trade experts, policymakers, business leaders under the AfCFTA, and researchers—to engage in strategic discussions on embedding IP into continental value chains, strengthening enforcement frameworks, and ensuring inclusive access to IP tools. The Summit organisers and the AfCFTA Secretariat are advancing a unified vision for a connected and inclusive IP landscape that underpins Africa’s future as a dynamic and innovation-driven trade bloc.

The Summit will provide a platform to assess the opportunities and challenges presented by the AfCFTA, generating actionable plans and policy recommendations that will directly inform and support the implementation of the AfCFTA’s IP Protocol. AAIPS 2024’s delegates had resolved to “develop an Africa-centric IP framework,” highlighting harmonized IP systems and simpler processes for SMEs as continent-wide priorities.

The 2025 Summit will explore how national governments can leverage the AfCFTA to advance their IP regimes and contribute to the broader goals of the Agreement. AAIPS 2025 is committed to driving the creation of a robust and inclusive IP ecosystem that empowers creators, entrepreneurs, communities, and businesses across the continent, partnering with the AfCFTA Secretariat, whose core mission is to liberalize trade and promote industrial development.

Ultimately, the AAIPS-AfCFTA strategic partnership underscores IP’s role as a catalyst for Africa’s future prosperity. By embedding IP Rights into the AfCFTA ecosystem, the continent stands to better protect homegrown innovations and cultural assets, spur private-sector R&D, ensuring African creators and industries reap the benefits of their creativity. No doubt, making intellectual property the backbone of Africa’s innovation will advance both regional trade integration and innovation-led growth.

Ready to be part of the discussions in Dakar, Senegal, from 12^th to 14^th November, 2025? Register now and secure your seat. Be part of this transformative journey to shape the Africa We Want!