NCC, AVCNU set plans for model IP policy for Nigerian Universities

Indication has emerged that the first draft of an Intellectual Property (IP) Policy for Nigerian universities will soon be finalised by Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), working in partnership with the Association of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (AVCNU) and the National Universities Commission (NUC).

Director-General of NCC, Mr. John O. Asein and Secretary-General of the AVCNU, Professor Yakubu Aboki Ochefu, disclosed this at a consultative meeting during a visit of the executives of AVCNU to the Commission’s Headquarters in Abuja recently.

Asein said the Commission would fast-track work on the draft IP Policy with a view to entrenching a credible copyright culture in the nation’s tertiary institutions.

“The adoption and implementation of an IP Policy in universities will guide lecturers, students and librarians on their copyright obligations and address the allocation of rights in our institutions of higher learning,” the DG NCC said.

The Director-General NCC also stated that implementation of an IP Policy would boost the Commission’s national anti-piracy campaign and enhance research and the use of IP knowledge in Nigerian universities.

He opined that this has become even more imperative in light of the attitudinal changes brought about in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Asein lamented the lack of copyright policy guidelines for library users in most Nigerian universities resulting in unregulated photocopying by students to the financial detriment of authors.

He charged AVCNU to assist in the implementation of the understanding earlier reached between the Reproduction Rights Society of Nigeria (REPRONIG) and the AVCNU on behalf of the Universities.

The Director-General pointed out that it was an irony that universities were not eager to obtain licences despite the fact that most of the authors would be among the primary beneficiaries.

He urged REPRONIG to explore ways of ensuring that those universities that signed up for its licence obtained value for money.

In his remarks, the Secretary-General of AVCNU, Professor Yakubu Aboki Ochefu, commended the NCC DG for assisting with the development of a model IP Policy for Nigerian Universities.

Prof. Ochefu announced that the plagiarism detection software, Eaglescan, introduced recently for use in Nigerian Universities has helped to check the incidence of plagiarism and copyright abuses in the universities.

The Secretary-General pointed out that copyright has become a critical issue in Nigerian universities in view of the increasing relevance of the virtual learning environment occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ochefu disclosed that many universities in Nigeria have no copyright policy and assured that the AVCNU would support the Commission in the development and adoption of the proposed IP Policy for universities in order to enrich the academic and research culture.

AVCNU scribe also indicated interest in the operations of the Nigerian Copyright Academy (NCA) and assured the Commission that AVCNU would work with the Academy to promote copyright education and enlightenment in the country, especially in the university system.

The recent visit of the AVCNU officials to the Commission is a follow up to an earlier visit of the NCC management team to the Association’s secretariat in February this year during which the Director-General of NCC advocated the urgent need for a model IP Policy for Nigerian Universities.