Winners of 2024 National IP Essay Competition Announced

Today’s youth are recognized as key drivers of economic growth and sustainable development.

Since the first edition in 2020, the WIPO National IP Essay Competition has been an opportunity for tertiary students in Nigeria to research and learn more about intellectual property as they explore policy ideas about the World Intellectual Property Day theme for each year.

The 2024 edition of the competition launched on April 27, 2024, with the theme, “IP and Sustainable Agriculture: Combating Food Insecurity in Nigeria”. It was focused on the broader World IP Day 2024 theme: “IP and the SDGs: Building our common future with innovation and creativity” and provided an opportunity for tertiary students to explore the various ways in which IP can support a key component ofthe current Nigerian Government’s 8-point agenda: food security in Nigeria. This is also the focus of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2.

A total of 256 entries were received from students across 68 tertiary institutions and 27 states of origin. An independent panel of 20 judges was selected to critically assess the essays in three stages over a period of 3 months. The essay competition came to a conclusion on October 4, 2024 with the emergence of a winner and 19 finalists.

One member of the panel of judges, Ms. Aisha Salihu, Assistant Chief Registrar, Trademarks Registry, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Nigeria remarked at the high quality of the entries submitted by the students, further buttressing the fact that young people are indeed a potential powerhouse for driving national and global development.

 

It was an honour to serve as a judge in this competition for the first time. I'm highly impressed by the exceptional entries in terms of the quality of writing and submissions.

Ms. Aisha Salihu, member Panel of Judges, WIPO National IP Essay Competition 2024

At the virtual announcement event, Mr. Edward Kwakwa, Assistant Director General, Global Challenges and Partnerships Sector, WIPO and also a member of the panel of judges, affirmed the essay competition topic as tackling a key area in current global development efforts and congratulated the participants for producing ground-breaking essays.

 

Intellectual Property rights in the agricultural sector happens to be directly linked to basic food needs. I was excited to see that the youth in particular were given the opportunity to participate in the essay competition and they have come up with ground-breaking essays.

Edward Kwakwa, member Panel of Judges, WIPO National IP Essay Competition 2024

The Winners

Mr. Ikenna Mba, a fourth-year law student from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, emerged the overall winner out of the 256 entrants, while Mr. Chinonso Izundu, a fifth-year law student from the University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt and Mr. Adekunle Olajide, a fourth-year law student from the University of Ilorin, placed first-runner up and second runner-up respectively.

The winning essays showed the versatility, tenacity and no-barriers approach of young people in engaging with problems and chasing down a solution.  To the admiration of the panel of judges, the top participants dove deep into the agricultural and food security waters determined to come up with solutions that could work, and how IP could support these.

My experience writing the WIPO essay competition is two words - Intense and Rewarding. Many intense hours of researching and reading just to put pen to paper.

Winner: Mr. Ikenna Mba, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria

For example, in his essay, Mr. Mba brought together knowledge of policy frameworks and research in agricultural practices and wove together a case for the incentivization of innovation, preserving traditional knowledge and technology transfer as viable solutions to food insecurity in Nigeria.

Both other winners also described the competition as one that took them out of their comfort zones and urged them to discover new worlds, in terms of both self-discovery and intellectual development.

I'll say writing the essay was a journey of intellectual discovery, driven by a natural zest to uncover the intersection of IP and sustainable practices in solving Nigeria's agricultural challenges.

Second runner-up: Mr. Adekunle Olajide, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria

I was forced or opportune to gain exposure to and learn from a new topic and perspectives, as well as, improve my writing, research and critical thinking skills.

First runner-up: Mr. Chinonso Izundu University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

WIPO will support the winner and finalists with capacity building prizes and opportunities to further strengthen their growth and engagement with the field of intellectual property. Since the inception of the competition in 2020, a total of 53 past winners and finalists have benefited from capacity building prizes.

The full list of announced winners and finalists, as well as their entries are included below:

No.	Name	Institution
1	Mr. Ikenna Mba	University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State
2	Mr. Chinonso Izundu	University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Rivers State
3	Mr. Adekunle Olajide	University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Kwara State
4	Mr. Akinnola Oluwafeyisemiire	University of Nigeria, Nsukka
5	Ms. Olubukola Abolade	University of Ibadan, Ibadan
6	Mr. Mubarak Adebayo	Bayero University, Kano
7	Mr. Enoch Akinlabi	University of Lagos, Lagos state
8	Ms. Precious Onuabuchi	University of Ilorin, Ilorin
9	Ms. Ogechi Ifezie	University of Nigeria, Nsukka
10	Mr. Aremu Ololade	University of Ibadan, Ibadan
11	Mr. Isaac Olugbenga	Federal school of surveying, Oyo state
12	Mr. Enoch Ajewole	University of Lagos, Lagos state
13	Mr. Adeoye Moronkola	Lagos State University, Lagos state
14	Mr. Oluwagbenga Adeyeye	Lagos State University, Lagos state
15	Mr. Paul Michael	University of Ibadan, Oyo State
16	Ms. Anuoluwapo Olanrewaju	University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Kwara State
17	Mr. Emmanuel Oyelami	University of Ibadan, Ibadan
18	Mr. Akinwunmi Akinyemi	Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife
19	Mr. Joshua Solomon	University of Ibadan, Ibadan
20	Ms Maryam Jimoh	Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State