 and there has been a recent rise in demand for creatives in the entertainment industry. However, respect for intellectual property laws is still a concern in a country where intellectual property is plagued by piracy. Today is World Intellectual Property Day and we have with us a seasoned entertainment lawyer, Giza Faumi, to elaborate on the importance of owning a right to your intellectual property. Efforts made as strengthening intellectual property rights and protection in Nigeria may have yielded little results. Common infringements include piracy, counterfeiting, unauthorized use of items, among others. In this fight, the National Copyright Commission is faced with a plethora of challenges which include poor financing, mobility, insecurity, favoritism, poor enforcement mechanism, poor information and communication technology knowledge, poor equipment for the implementation of the anti-piracy policies. The enforcement of intellectual property rights in Nigeria involves various judicial and administrative mechanisms. Essentially, there are four main forms of intellectual property common in Nigeria which include trademarks, copyrights, patents, and industrial designs. With the many infringements, owners, creators, or holders of patents, trademarks, or copyrighted works find it hard to benefit from their works. IP violations no doubt hinder economic growth by discouraging investment, decreasing innovation, discouraging research, and diminishing financial benefits from creation and may pose harm to consumers. This year's World Intellectual Property Day theme focuses on the great potential the youth has, which, if supported and encouraged, can play a vital role in the advancement of the planet. Joining us in the studio is Professor Bankole Shodiko. Good evening, Prof. Good evening. Well, every year Nigeria loses at least three billion US dollars to piracy. What's the way out? We have a series of laws in Nigeria. We have courts that are willing to enforce the rights. And for those who have been to the courts, there are many cases that have been adjudicated. People have been imprisoned and damages have been awarded of up to 16 billion naira for infringement. But the question really is how many people approach the courts and the time it takes even in enforcement of rights. These are some of the problems. So how can we improve that situation to make more people approach the courts and shorten the time that it takes to deliver? Well, continuous engagement with the courts because the courts are overworked. Some of us are saying that we need more judges. We need more courts. And we are also saying that the enforcers of the law for the government, the Nigerian Copyright Commission, for instance, and standard organization of Nigeria NAVDAC, need to be empowered even in the enforcement of intellectual property by prosecuting infringers. I wonder if we have Ms. Farami online now. Hello, Ms. Farami. Okay. Good to have you with us. Thank you. Can you hear me now? Yes, I can hear you. Good evening. Good evening. Well, let's hear your views on the way out of the mess we find ourselves in this field. Good evening, everybody. IP Intellectual Property Day. I think generally for me it's just for us to change the orientation we have towards IP. There's a mindset of people not just understanding the value that is being attached to intellectual property as a product or as a property or as an asset that can be owned, that can be traded and can be exploited. So the predisposition by everybody from legislation to consumers to creators has made the interaction with intellectual property quite strenuous and not achieving work to the extent that it can be profitable. So you have, like the last thing I just said, you have the approach of the court, you know, IP is very time sensitive and time conscious. So because of the mindset that you feel like because you can't touch it, it's not product you can feel, you can see, you tend to disrespect it a lot. And currently now the population in Africa as such that we're dealing with or in Nigeria also that we're dealing with is very youthful. The demographic is very young and young people are very creative, you know, whether it's music, film, art, fashion, whatever it is in IP. So you have a huge turnout of intellectual property. So for me, generally, I think like the next elections coming up, creative people have to be very, very, very intentional. A lot of people that we send in to government, especially the legislation, the legislative house. And that's why, you know, we appreciate people like Senator Tokomba, who recently added a cushion for the copyright deal to be passed. So those are the things that we need the mindset to change for people to know that IP is a product that can be sold, that can be bought and can be made and is an asset. Well, policy and policy makers, how do we get them engaged and involved in this? Well, the good thing is that the intellectual property sector in Nigeria can actually lobby. And for like she just said, recently the Senate passed a new bill improving the copyright law, which seeks to improve the copyright law. And we're hoping that this will also be passed by the House of Representatives and giving presidential assent during this currency. So what we need to do is to push for reforms. We need to educate them because they know that our intellectual property has been very good brand ambassadors for Nigeria. Our film, our music all over the world tell good stories about Nigeria. And that's why we need to use this to press upon them that they need to give us more, particularly because they need our votes very soon. And the youth, like she said, in terms of demographic, they make up the majority of people in Nigeria at the moment. Yeah, matter of fact, the same for this year's intellectual property days focuses on IP and youth innovating for a better future. Tell us more about this. Well, the sector contributes a significant proportion to Nigeria's GDP and it has even more potentials. And what the government needs to do, for instance, we are very delighted by what the central bank did, trying to give more money to the creative sector. But we need more to be given, we need more funds to be given to the Copyright Commission to be able to boost their work in arresting pirates and enforcing intellectual property rights. We need the courts even to be expanded so that cases move faster in the courts. And of course, creatives need more capacity building. We need the laws even to change. We also need a commission, just like the Corporate Affairs Commission. We need a commission for trademark patents, industrial property commission. And we are calling on the government to do that for us. Ms. Falmi. Ms. Falmi. Yeah, so Nigerians are known to be some of the most creative people in the world. How do we better milk this cash cow? So for me, essentially, IP creation and IP management as a whole is extremely expensive. It's an expensive business. And even the government or the legislation of people that are in charge of financial institutions or whatever it is, have zero knowledge about how the economics of IP works. So even if the government has said, oh, there's one billion, it's CBN for the creative fund. The parameters to access this money is insane. It doesn't make any sense because you've not put those structures in place to ensure that, you know, the average creative or the average company that works in creating IP or manages IP can access this money. So it's a futile venture. You know, so a lot of the funds that are set up that you say, oh, there's fanfare about all this money has been set up for this. So instead of that, nobody can access it because you're putting parameters that do not make sense and we cannot meet. So my thing about milking, the private people, the private industry, like, for example, the music industry, is seeing amazing amount of foreign investment money. You know, and a lot of people are forced to give out what they are not originally supposed to give out because they are financially limited. And it's it's upsetting because you talk to the financial institutions here and it's so backward and they're refusing to change their mindset about how this thing should work. So you see a lot of the IP being created. The ownership is going outside of the country because for you to get money, you have to exchange, you know, your ownership to a certain extent. So for us, it's going to suck if in another 15 years we wake up and we see that the best of IP that we own and have been created of this continent belongs to foreigners because people we didn't refuse to change mindset and understand the economics of IP. So you highlighted some of these problems along with Prof. How do we move from Georgia to action? How do we move from because over time, you know, when these things are highlighted with talk, intellectual speeches are made. How do we move from this talking to doing to make sure that these structures are actually put in place so that next year when we're celebrating this day would have moved to another level results. How do we do that? So essentially, I mean, I can give for a straight example, the music industry is already doing that, right? So they are solving their problems by themselves, putting in structures. Private individuals are putting in structures but are working in silos because with limited capacity, they're only working in silos. My conversation from the beginning is change the mindset and the way we change the mindset is getting experts in each field. So experts in trademark, experts in patents, experts in entertainment to sit down with the legislators and have conversations about building infrastructure through policy. So if you want large scale, large scale results, it has to involve policy and experts that have done that created solution out of problems need to sit down with these people and educate them. The problem now is that the DNA of the country itself still doesn't understand that IP is essential to the GDP. So it's very tough to have that conversation. And the private people keep doing what they are doing pushing it in silos to policy people come to understand that this is a money spinner for the GDP. So private people keep working, providing solutions via whatever laws that we have now circumventing it, creating new models. And it's going to keep working until we wait for the government or the policy makers to catch up and increase. And mostly they catch up when they see tremendous amount of money. I mean, it's already happening in tech and the tech people have proven that once you start adding significant money to the GDP, they come and have conversation. Unfortunately, they come out of conversation from a very, very, very ignorant point of view, which causes like a bit of friction in the industry before it's regularized. So my thing generally is IP owners, IP managers, IP users and whatever need to be very, very intentional about who we elect into government. Yeah, I think that's a good place to stop being intentional about who they elect into government. Those who can make the right policies and those who can appreciate the economics of it all. Thank you so much, Ms. Giza, for your time. You are an entertainment lawyer, spoken very well. And Prof. Prof. Ban Kuleshadeko, thank you so much for your time. My pleasure. Thank you. Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.