WIPO to open two new offices in Africa

Following the 2016 WIPO Assemblies, its member states have agreed to increase the number of physical offices into new frontiers. As such, going into the future, WIPO will have two offices located in the continent of Africa, located in Algeria and Nigeria.

These offices will provide the opportunity of expanding the accumulated knowledge of African IP while also serve the purpose of increasing the awareness to WIPO’s services and furthering the goal of international cooperation, concerning Intellectual Property, among all the member-states of WIPO.

Algeria and Nigeria won over other applying countries such as Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and Kenya.

According to Algeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a statement dating from August 7th, "The offices of Algiers and Abuja will preserve and promote Africa' interests in WIPO areas of actions".

The Nigerian Copyright Office has also addressed the bid victory by saying that “A WIPO Office in Nigeria will, among others, position Africa to make better use of specific fit-for-purpose WIPO services to strengthen Nigeria/Africa’s creative and innovative sectors (…)”.

Further diplomatic talks are underway to open four more offices until the end of this decade.