By Joy Baba-Yesufu
The Permanent Secretary Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Amb. Nura Abba Rimi has said that government is making efforts toward improving the Nigerian economy through the ‘Renewed Hope Agenda’ which is purposefully aimed at enhancing growth of the economy, attracting foreign direct investment into the country and encouraging production of goods and services for local consumption and export.
He also said that he said that it is an established fact that a robust intellectual property regime in any country provides the guarantees required by investors for making investment, thereby attracting foreign investors, stimulating markets, promoting and protecting businesses, encouraging creativity and innovations and ultimately creating jobs and wealth.
Rimi stated this during the Trademarks Registry of the ministry’s annual interactive session held on Friday at the Ministry’s conference hall with the Nigerian Intellectual Property Stakeholders, with the theme, “The Trademarks registry under the new business facilitation act 2023”.
He further said that, with the impending take off of the ACFTA, Nigeria cannot afford to operate an incoherent and outdated Trademarks system being the largest consumer market in Africa.
‘Our Trademark law or system must be apt, efficient and comparable to similar laws in other successful climes’ He said.
He said it is a challenge that Nigeria must address to ensure her readiness for the expected leadership role in the success of the quest to efficiently operationalize the Trademarks system in Nigeria.
Rimi went on to reveal that, since the enactment of the Business Facilitation Act 2023, the Federal Government had on its own instituted a Performance Management System in the public service that ties rewards like promotions and advancement to performance and measurable productivity and service delivery.
He therefore implored participants to consider in their deliberations the existing challenges being faced and recommendations on how best to make the Trademarks Registry serve them, assuring them that their recommendations shall be considered by the government.
In his welcome address, the Director Trademarks Registry, Dr. Adamu Yauri appreciated the Permanent Secreatry’s presence at the interactive session, adding that with a renewed confidence, all the identified challenges that need urgent action by management will be tackled with speed.
He disclosed that challenges of power, regular publication of journals and the issues of backlogs of untreated applications had been radically addressed and has resulted to the registry’s issuance of recorded number of certificates, Tecordals and rulings in opposition cases.
He however, stated that the challenges of inefficient Registration Platform, Low budget allocation and working tools still remained, thereby affecting service delivery, which is particularly worrisome in the light of the Performance Management System of the Head of Service, the Business Facilitation Act and the Ease of Doing Business principle.
He maintained that the Ministry is hopeful of resolving some of the key knotty issues after the smooth operations and that together they can strengthen the capacity of the Registry to provide more efficient and timely services to them who are the customers.
