Africa IP Day 2026 takes place online on 10 September under the theme “Growing Business Under the AfCFTA IP Ecosystem”. Two calls for submissions close first, on 31 August.
Closing on 31 August
Two calls are open and close on 31 August 2026. The first, My IP Story, invites entrepreneurs to submit a five-minute video setting out how intellectual property helped them grow a business: which right they used, what value it created, and what registering it changed. The second is the Secretary-General’s Prize, which recognises exceptional achievement by individuals or entities that have used intellectual property to drive economic, social or cultural impact across Africa. Nominees may be individuals or legal entities from any of the 55 African Union member states, and self-nominations, institutional nominations and public nominations are all accepted. Both are submitted online; details and forms are available from the Secretariat.
The programme
The programme features a panel session titled “The conundrum of growing intangible asset-based businesses and investment in a fragmented African Intellectual Property context”. The session examines the difficulty of building and financing businesses whose principal asset is intangible, in a continental landscape where intellectual property protection is still obtained jurisdiction by jurisdiction.
Why this matters now
The Protocol on Intellectual Property Rights to the Agreement establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area was adopted on 19 February 2023. In February 2026, the Assembly of the African Union adopted eight annexes to that Protocol, covering marks, industrial designs, new plant variety protection, patents, utility models, geographical indications, copyright and related rights, and traditional knowledge, traditional cultural expressions and genetic resources. Annexes are what turn a framework into an instrument: they set out what is actually protected and how.
Speaking in Abuja on 1 July 2026, the Secretary-General of the AfCFTA Secretariat described the Protocol as an opportunity for the continent to use intellectual property to advance industrial development, naming local pharmaceutical production as a field where it should allow Africa to move faster. Africa IP Day 2026 addresses the question that follows from that position: what a business with an intangible asset can actually do with the framework as it now stands.
Date 10 September 2026
Platform Online, by Zoom, with registration
Theme Growing Business Under the AfCFTA IP Ecosystem
Calls for submissions My IP Story and the Secretary-General’s Prize, both closing 31 August 2026
Contact IPR-registry@au-afcfta.org
