The Nigerian designer and internet personality, Tania Omotayo, publicly called out a vendor in 2023 for copying her clothing design and logo and selling the knock-off version for half the price online. In 2025, Veekee James, also a Nigerian designer, called “Thief” a Senegalese designer who copied her viral Bonang Matheba (a South African television presenter) Dress. Stories like this are becoming increasingly common. They show how Africa’s thriving fashion industry can also be uniquely vulnerable if intellectual property protections don’t keep pace with its growth.

We have been witnessing exponential growth in the fashion industry in Africa in the last 20 years, driven by the youth demographics in the continent, aligned with its cultural richness. At the same time, we noticed a global interest in what the continent has to offer, which has been enabled by the Cross-Border Trade (AfCFTA), the world’s largest free trade area (54 African Union members), that aims to remove tariffs and trade barriers between African countries, making it easier and cheaper to trade goods and services across borders.

The African fashion industry is estimated at about USD 31 billion in value and the visibility of the sector is shown trough numerous examples, particularly the rise of fashion events, such as the Lagos Fashion week, in Nigeria, or expositions in the Victoria and Albert Museum, in London, where African designers and textile traditions are shown, raising global awareness to the sector. Apart from that, the visibility to the sector in Africa has also been enabled by the international recognition of African designers and fashion brands, such as Ejiro Amos-Tafiri (Nigerian fashion designer), Orange Culture (Nigerian clothing brand), Kenneth Ize (Nigerian designer) or Christie Brown (Ghanaian clothing brand).

The industry’s expansion is also an economic story. Fashion and textiles support millions of jobs, from farmers producing cotton to tailors and logistics companies, and contribute to Africa’s soft power globally. But the same openness and cross-border trade that fuels growth can also accelerate risks if intellectual property protections remain weak.

Despite industry’s rapid growth, much of Africa’s fashion value chain remains informal and intellectual property protection is frequently neglected: a combination that exposes businesses to a host of risks:

  • unauthorized manufacturing: designs copied without consent
  • subcontracting without control: loss of quality and brand dilution
  • counterfeiting: Imitations damaging reputation and consumer trust
  • no registration: no legal grounds to enforce rights

These issues are intensified when intellectual property is not embedded into the business model from the start. The key vulnerabilities in the supply chains in Africa depend on the stage of production. At the design stage, if the owner does not seek the protection of copyright, design or trademark, it becomes vulnerable to the loss of ownership. Subsequently, during the production stage, the absence of contracts or non-disclosure agreements in subcontracting arrangements can result in the diversion of fabric for unauthorized replicas. During the branding process, the lack of registration of trademarks could result in brand hijacking. Finally, at the distribution stage, lack of oversight by IP owners can lead products into grey markets or even outright counterfeiting, undermining brand value and consumer trust.

In many African markets, trademark hijacking - registering a well-known mark in first-to-file jurisdictions - and parasitic registration - filing a confusingly similar mark to ride on an established brand’s goodwill - have become major risks for fashion businesses.

Technology and e-commerce add another layer: while social media and digital platforms amplify African creativity and global reach, they also make copying easier, speed up counterfeiting, and create new online grey markets that are harder to police.

These vulnerabilities persist particularly because:

1. Cost perception: many African designers and small businesses view intellectual property registration as an expensive, non-essential step compared to production or marketing.

2. Limited enforcement: even when rights are registered, some jurisdictions lack strong enforcement mechanisms, trained IP officers, or efficient courts. This makes it harder to stop infringers or counterfeiters quickly and increases the cost of legal action.

3. Lack of awareness of IP’s commercial value: many entrepreneurs still see IP as a purely legal concept rather than a business asset. As a result, they miss opportunities to license, franchise, or monetize their creative work, and underestimate the risk of third parties exploiting it.

4. Fragmented legal landscape: Africa operates under multiple overlapping IP regimes, such as OAPI (Organisation Africaine de la Propriété Intellectuelle), ARIPO (African Regional Intellectual Property Organization), and national laws. This complexity can confuse rights holders, discourage filings, and create loopholes that infringers exploit.

To prevent such vulnerabilities, businesses should act in a way to make sure that IP is integrated at the early stages of production, particularly by way of registering copyright, trademarks and designs. Apart from that, businesses should make sure that NDAs and suppliers’ agreements are in place to protect trade secrets. Another measure is training local partners on IP protection and legal obligations as to act when entering into certain agreements, as well as making sure that marketplaces (either online or on the ground) are monitored, to ascertain that products are legitimately in the market. Finally, it is important that businesses owners seek help from IP professionals and local helpdesks.

Aligned with what businesses owners should do, policymakers play an important role when the subject is the protection of IP. The following actions should be considered to prevent the vulnerabilities in the supply chain:

  • Simplify and make IP registration affordable: reducing costs and creating digital platforms that make trademark and design registration easier and faster for MSMEs and designers.
  • Invest in IP education for MSMEs and designers: launch awareness campaigns and training programs to help entrepreneurs understand the commercial value of IP, how to protect it, and how to leverage it for growth.
  • Strengthening enforcement partnerships with customs and courts: fund and train customs officials, judges, and police to identify counterfeiting goods and act. Cross-border cooperation is especially important under the AfCFTA to prevent infringing goods from moving freely between countries.
  • Incentivize creative industries with IP-based support schemes: introduce grants, tax incentives, or preferential procurement programs for companies that demonstrate strong IP portfolios, rewarding creativity and driving global competitiveness.

In addition, policymakers should prioritize harmonizing IP standards across the continent under the AfCFTA framework. A central African IP registry or interoperable databases between OAPI, ARIPO and national offices could reduce loopholes, ensure consistency and make enforcement faster and more predictable.

Africa’s fashion industry offers not only economic potential but also a chance to model a new way of doing business, one rooted in creativity, fair trade, and respect for ownership. Protecting IP across the supply chain safeguards jobs encourages investment, nurtures the continent’s cultural heritage and strengthens its soft power globally. If governments, businesses and regional bodies act now, Africa can transform its booming fashion sector into a global leader in sustainable and ethically protected creativity.