World Intellectual Property Day
Safeguarding African creativity and innovation through intellectual property
Observed every year on 26 April, World Intellectual Property (IP) Day is a moment to reflect on how those protections shape industries, livelihoods, and cultures, particularly on a continent where the creative economy and practical innovation are growing faster than the systems designed to support it.
Africa is a continent bursting with creativity and innovation. The role of IP is to safeguard that. Intellectual property is protected by law, for example, through patents, copyright, and trademarks, which enable people to earn recognition or financial benefit from their creations.
In the creative fields, Afrobeats, for example, is arguably Africa’s most successful cultural export of the 21st century. Artists like Burna Boy, Wizkid, Tems, and Rema are performing on global stages and racking up billions of streams.
In 2023, Afrobeats alone accounted for over 14 billion streams on Spotify, with that figure rising by 114% in 2024. That same year, Universal Music Group acquired a majority stake in Nigerian label Mavin Global—home to Rema and Ayra Starr—valuing it at $150–200 million. The deal represented formal recognition of African music IP as a major commercial asset.
Copyright law is the engine behind this. It ensures that music is streamed or licensed and that artists retain control over how their work is used commercially.
In 2022, Nigeria’s Copyright Act was updated to address digital distribution and online infringement—a sign that the legal framework is trying to keep pace with the industry’s growth.
However, African artists still miss out on substantial royalty payments. Despite being the fastest-growing region for music royalty collections in 2024, total collections reached only €90 million, just 0.7% of global collections. The global popularity of Afrobeats and the ernings of African artists are not moving at the same pace.
The reason is largely structural. Billions in royalties never reach African creators due to outdated systems at local collective management organisations, fragmented music metadata, and a lack of transparency in how payments are calculated and distributed. In 2023, South Africa’s Southern African Music Rights Organisation (SAMRO) unlocked R22 million in previously unclaimed royalties simply by updating bank details. This is a telling sign of how much value is quietly slipping through the cracks.
There is, however, a ray of hope. Nigeria’s Record Label Proprietors Initiative, Music Publishers Association, and a newly launched Collective Management Organisation are all working to strengthen royalty collection infrastructure. The goal is not just legal reform but building the operational backbone that gets money into artists’ hands.
Beyond the creative industries, however, some of Africa’s most enduring innovations reflect a different relationship with IP. In sectors such as agriculture and household energy, widely used technologies like the Kenya Ceramic Jiko and smallholder irrigation tools have remained in use for decades, becoming embedded in everyday life across Africa. Their longevity is not always tied to formal patents or tightly controlled ownership, but to their ability to solve immediate, recurring needs. As a result, these innovations often scale through widespread adoption and adaptation, even as the systems to formally capture and protect their value remain limited and underutilised.
IP, at its best, is a mechanism for ensuring that the people who create value are the ones who benefit from it. In Africa, that value is evident not only in globally exported creative content but also in the everyday innovations that sustain livelihoods across the continent. Bridging the gap between creation and value capture, whether in music, technology, or agriculture, will require stronger legal frameworks and systems that recognise, formalise, and scale what already works. Getting that balance right is not a niche policy question, but an economic imperative.
