Journal of African Development

Intellectual property (IP) law occupies an uneasy position in Africa's development trajectory. It is simultaneously the legal instrument through which African innovators might capture the value of indigenous knowledge and technology, and the doctrinal apparatus through which foreign right-holders restrict African access to patented medicines, agricultural inputs, and digital technologies. This article examines the legal architecture governing technology transfer to Africa the World Trade Organization's TRIPS Agreement, the continent's two regional IP offices (ARIPO and OAPI), and the emerging African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Protocol on Intellectual Property Rights and argues that the persistent underperformance of Article 66.2's technology-transfer obligation, together with fragmented regional patent examination capacity, has left African states without the legal or institutional tools needed to convert IP protection into genuine technological absorption. Drawing on the 2001 South African medicines litigation and the 2022 WTO COVID-19 vaccine waiver as illustrative episodes, the article proposes a development-oriented reform agenda centred on continental technology-transfer accountability, regional patent-office consolidation, and TRIPS-flexibility-literate national legislation...