The African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI) and the African Guaranto Fund (AGF) signed today, May 06, 2025 at the OAPI headquarters in Yaoundé, a strategic agreement in the amount of FCFA 40 billion, marking a decisive turning point in supporting funding and innovation in the 17 OAPI member states.
Chaired by Mr. Denis Bohoussou , Director General of OAPI, and Mr. Jules Ngankam , Director General of the AGF, the official ceremony devotes the culmination of a substantive work started since 2020 which concretizes the desire to breathe new life into entrepreneurship and innovation on the continent.
A structuring mechanism, designed for the innovation ecosystem
This unprecedented mechanism aims to support 1000 innovative projects over a period of five years, based on two essential levers:
• A participation of 5 billion FCFA of the OAPI in the capital of the AGF
• The creation of a warranty window dedicated to banking credits granted to innovative project leaders and SMEs whose inventions are protected by a patent in the Member States
Concretely, this system will reduce the structural obstacles to which innovators face to access funding, bringing:
• A credit guarantee facilitating bank loans
• Technical support at each stage of the project life cycle (priming, growth, expansion)
• A connection with industrial partners
• Support for the commercial valuation of industrial property securities, in particular patents
A response to the challenges of financing innovation in Africa
The initiative is part of the implementation of the 2018–2022 and 2023–2027 strategic plans of the OAPI, which make innovation funding a central lever for technological development. A study conducted in 2020 on the financing of innovation in Africa had highlighted the absence of tools adapted to the context of innovative SMEs. The OAPI has thus developed a tailor-made system, approved by its board of directors on July 26, 2024 through resolution n ° 10/2.
According to the director general of OAPI, "this partnership with the AGF aims to fill a structural void in our community space, by providing innovation carriers a concrete, sustainable and large -scale support". "This is a historical and revolutionary mechanism," said the director general of the AGF.
The first calls for projects will be launched in the third quarter of 2025, with the aim of supporting 200 projects from the first year of implementation.
