JOHANNESBURG– November 24, 2025 – A new G20 roadmap urges that Cultural Intellectual Property (IP)— from creative works such as music and art to digital cultural data—be formally recognized and integrated into macroeconomic and financial frameworks. This roadmap from the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD), AXM, and the Africa Investor (Ai) Group positions Africa’s creative industries as a key driver of inclusive economic growth.
Cultural intellectual property contributes an estimated US$2.3 trillion to global GDP annually and supports 30 million jobs, according to UNESCO and WIPO data.
Cultural industries already represent more than 3% of global GDP (UNESCO), yet remain largely invisible in fiscal models.
In Africa alone, the creative sectors could generate over $20 billion annually if IP systems were fully formalized, according to the African Development Bank.
McKinsey estimates generative AI will unlock up to US$7.9 trillion in annual economic value — driven largely by the data that trains these models, positioning cultural IP as critical national infrastructure.
The roadmap outlines the framework for governments, multilateral institutions, and investors to establish the systems—registries, standards, and governance protocols—that can unlock culture as an investable public asset. It aligns with the African Union’s Agenda 2063, emphasizing digital sovereignty and the creation of new pathways for African nations to own and monetize their creative and cultural assets.
“We’re mapping an opportunity to build long-term value for African creators and economies,” said Pamla GoPaul, Senior Programme Manager, Africa Policy Bridge Tank, Economic Analysis and Foresight Unit, AUDA-NEPAD. “When we connect cultural production to finance, we strengthen the continent’s global competitiveness and economic resilience.”
The roadmap urges that culture is economic infrastructure and encourages governments to integrate authorship and IP governance into national accounts, investors to recognize cultural IP as an asset class, and multilateral institutions to provide the guarantees that bring these markets to scale.
“Culture is not only memory; it is a macroeconomic engine,” said Dr. Hubert Danso, Chairman and CEO, Africa Investor (Ai) Group. Its revenues flow through creative industries, tourism, digital platforms, and now, artificial intelligence. Yet its rights and governance systems remain fragmented. By aligning policy with innovation and infrastructure with authorship, we propose a concrete path to value, protect, and invest in culture as a productive public good.”
“The world profits from culture, but too often through extraction, not partnership,” said Archie Davis, Co-Founder of AXM, the company developing the infrastructure linking creative IP with financial markets. “Without the proper digital infrastructure, ownership and attribution are not appropriately given to the creators, artists, and cultural workers, and as a result, they are excluded from the very economies they sustain. By linking cultural IP to macroeconomic frameworks, nations can create a pathway for equitable participation in the global digital economy.”
AXM’s digital public infrastructure (DPI) technology, known as the Authorship DPI Standard, provides the infrastructure that modernizes the registration, governance, and licensing of cultural and creative assets, thereby giving cultural works a legal, digital, and economic presence.
Read the report here.
https://www.axm.global/blog/g20-report
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About AXM
AXM is a patent-pending Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) system that modernizes the registration, governance, and licensing of cultural and creative assets in the era of AI. AXM develops digital public-infrastructure models that enable creators and institutions to record, value, and license their work with transparent and auditable governance.
For creators, estates, and institutions, AXM transforms authorship from an abstract right into programmable infrastructure: measurable, enforceable, and interoperable across human and machine contexts—including AI training and generative outputs.
About African Union Development Agency-NEPAD
The AUDA-NEPAD Africa Policy Bridge Tank is a continental knowledge-to-policy platform that strengthens the interface between African research institutions and decision-makers. It connects African think tanks, academia, and policymakers to co-create evidence-based solutions aligned with Agenda 2063.
Anchored in the African Union’s development vision, the initiative facilitates the co-production of policy-relevant knowledge, strategic foresight, and systems thinking to inform national, regional, and continental development strategies.
By fostering inclusive, multi-stakeholder dialogues and promoting South-South cooperation, the Africa Policy Bridge Tank contributes to reshaping global governance frameworks and advancing Africa’s agency in multilateral fora.
About Africa Investor (Ai) Group
Africa Investor (Ai) is an institutional investment platform that supports sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, family offices, global investors, and philanthropies to allocate to Africa’s strategic infrastructure, technology, and natural and cultural capital investment opportunities.
Through Ai Capital and the Ai Academy, Ai develops fiduciary-grade investment platforms and Institutional Investor–Public Partnership (IIPP) solutions that de-risk and scale institutional allocations. Ai originates and structures Africa’s thematic advantages into resilient, investable assets that strengthen competitiveness and Make Development Investible.
