French agency grants OAPI FCFA 2.128 bln

The French Development Agency (AFD) has granted FCFA 2.128 billion to the African Organization for Intellectual Property (OAPI), as part of an agreement signed on Friday in the Cameroonian capital, Yaoundé.

The money will be used to fund the second phase of the support program for the development of geographical indications (PAMPID II), to support the emergence of a favorable regional and national environment for the development of geographical indications in OAPI member countries.

The program is specifically aimed at promoting the marketing of African traditional products and increasing producers’ income, with the Geographical Indication (GI) being an industrial property right that identifies and protects a natural, agricultural, craft or industrial, product originating from a specific geographic area and with specific qualities.

This second phase of PAMPIG will help consolidate the achievements of the opening stage, while expanding its scope of intervention to new countries.

In fact, we know that the 1st phase funded to the tune of 650 million CFA francs between 2008 and 2014 allowed the establishment and registration of the first three IG in sub-Saharan Africa, especially known as Penja pepper and Oku white honey in Cameroon, and the Ziama-Macenta coffee in Guinea.

Dedicated to the protection of intellectual property in order to encourage the commercial exploitation of its assets, OAPI groups Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Comoros, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, the Central African Republic (CAR), Senegal, Chad and Togo.