09Protecting & Transforming Value
Technology & Intellectual Property
Powering Africa's Digital Future
Artificial intelligence, data, telecommunications, cloud, cybersecurity, digital finance and digital public infrastructure are changing how institutions govern, how enterprises compete and how citizens access services.
At the same time, intellectual property has become a central source of enterprise value.
Platform
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Protecting & Transforming Value — Preserving enterprise value under stress, resolving what is contested, and protecting what has been created.
Practice engine
FIT
Purpose
Technology is transforming every sector of the African economy.
Artificial intelligence, data, telecommunications, cloud computing, cybersecurity, digital finance, digital public infrastructure and advanced manufacturing are changing how institutions govern, how enterprises compete and how citizens access services.
At the same time, intellectual property has become a central source of enterprise value. Brands, software, algorithms, data, research, creative works, designs and proprietary knowledge increasingly determine market position and competitive advantage.
Why this matters
Digital transformation is no longer an isolated technology project. It is an enterprise and institutional transformation agenda.
Boards and public leaders must now make consequential decisions concerning:
Technology creates enormous opportunity. Poor governance, procurement or implementation can create equally significant exposure.
Clients therefore require advisers who understand the legal, commercial, institutional, financial and operational dimensions of technology.
- Artificial intelligence
- Cybersecurity
- Digital infrastructure
- Data governance
- Technology procurement
- Cloud services
- Platform regulation
- Digital identity
- Telecommunications
- Technology investment
- Intellectual property
- Innovation commercialisation
- Digital sovereignty and trust
What we do
Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies
- AI strategy
- Responsible AI governance
- AI policies and institutional frameworks
- Algorithmic accountability
- AI procurement
- Model and data governance
- AI risk assessments
- Automated decision-making
- Emerging technology regulation
- Board and executive oversight of AI
Digital Transformation
- Enterprise digital transformation
- Government digital transformation
- Digital operating models
- Technology-enabled institutional reform
- Digital maturity assessments
- Implementation governance
- Change and adoption frameworks
- Digital service redesign
- Programme assurance
Technology Procurement and Implementation
- ICT procurement strategy
- Requests for proposals and tender documentation
- Technology contracting
- Systems integration
- ERP and core-system implementation
- Software licensing
- Cloud services
- Outsourcing and managed services
- Vendor governance
- Acceptance testing and service levels
- Implementation disputes and remediation
Data Governance and Privacy
- Data governance frameworks
- Data protection compliance
- Privacy impact assessments
- Data-sharing arrangements
- Cross-border data transfers
- Information governance
- Data retention
- Data ethics
- Data commercialisation
- Regulatory engagement
Cybersecurity and Digital Resilience
- Cyber governance
- Board oversight of cybersecurity
- Cyber-risk frameworks
- Incident preparedness and response
- Digital operational resilience
- Technology risk
- Third-party cyber risk
- Critical information infrastructure
- Cyber investigations
- Regulatory notification and response
Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure
- Telecommunications licensing
- Spectrum
- Fibre infrastructure
- Towers and network sharing
- Data centres
- Submarine and terrestrial connectivity
- Universal access
- Infrastructure sharing
- Digital public infrastructure
- Smart cities
- Sector regulation and market reform
Financial Technology and Digital Finance
- FinTech licensing
- Digital banking
- Payment systems
- Electronic money
- Digital credit
- Open banking and open finance
- Regulatory sandboxes
- Digital assets
- SupTech and RegTech
- Financial-sector technology governance
Intellectual Property Protection
- Trade marks
- Patents
- Copyright
- Industrial designs
- Trade secrets
- Domain names
- Brand protection
- IP enforcement
- Portfolio management
- Anti-counterfeiting strategies
Intellectual Property Commercialisation
- Licensing
- Franchising
- Technology transfer
- Research collaboration
- Joint innovation
- IP valuation support
- Commercialisation structures
- Royalty arrangements
- University and research institution innovation
- Creative and cultural industries
Technology Transactions
- Technology investments
- Digital joint ventures
- Technology mergers and acquisitions
- Venture capital transactions
- Software and platform acquisitions
- IP due diligence
- Technology restructuring
- Digital infrastructure finance
- Strategic technology partnerships
Supervisory Technology (SupTech) & Regulatory Technology (RegTech)
Supervision is being rebuilt around data. Regulators across Africa are moving from periodic returns and on-site inspection towards continuous, machine-readable supervision, while regulated entities are automating the compliance obligations that meet it. Both sides raise questions that are legal before they are technical: what a supervisor may lawfully collect, on what basis it may act on an automated output, and what a regulated entity remains responsible for when compliance is delegated to a system.
SupTech — Advising Supervisors
- Legal basis and vires for supervisory data collection, continuous reporting and direct system access
- Design of supervisory data frameworks, reporting taxonomies and machine-readable returns
- Market surveillance, transaction monitoring and anomaly detection systems, and the evidential standing of their outputs
- Automated and semi-automated supervisory decisions: reasons, review rights and the administrative justice requirements that attach to them
- Data protection, confidentiality, professional secrecy and the constitutional privacy limits on supervisory data
- Information sharing between supervisors, domestically and across borders, and memoranda of understanding
- Procurement and governance of supervisory technology, including vendor lock-in, model transparency and audit rights
- Regulatory sandboxes, innovation offices, test-and-learn frameworks and the terms on which supervised experimentation occurs
RegTech — Advising Regulated Entities
- Automated regulatory reporting, prudential and conduct compliance systems
- Digital onboarding, electronic KYC, identity verification and customer due diligence automation
- Anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing transaction monitoring, screening and suspicious transaction reporting
- Model governance and validation, including accountability for false positives and automated refusals
- Outsourcing and cloud arrangements for compliance-critical functions, and supervisory notification
- Consumer protection, fair treatment and complaint handling in automated processes
- Board and senior management accountability for technology-enabled compliance
Sector Regulator Advisory
We advise communications regulators and financial sector supervisors, including central banks, on the full regulatory toolkit: licensing and authorisation frameworks, spectrum management and assignment, quality of service and universal access obligations, market definition and dominance, interconnection and infrastructure sharing, payment systems oversight, electronic money and digital credit regulation, virtual asset frameworks, open finance, and the design of enforcement powers and their procedural safeguards.
Signature solutions
Defined pieces of work that address the needs this platform meets most often. Each can be scoped and commissioned on its own.
AI Governance Framework
A board-adopted framework covering AI strategy, accountability, risk, data, ethics, procurement, assurance and regulatory compliance, together with the board papers, policies and decision rights an organisation needs to deploy AI it can defend to a regulator.
Data Protection Compliance & Registration Programme
Full compliance with the Data Protection and Privacy Act 2019 and the national registration regime: lawful basis, data mapping, processor contracting, cross-border transfer, breach response and data subject rights — with registration obtained and maintained, not merely advised on.
Intellectual Property Strategy
Identifying, protecting, enforcing and commercialising intellectual assets — including the conversion of research, creative output and institutional knowledge into investable form, so that what an African institution knows becomes something it can license, finance or sell.
How we deliver
- Define the strategic, commercial or institutional objective
- Assess the technology, data, IP and regulatory environment
- Identify governance, implementation and commercial risks
- Design the legal, governance and transaction architecture
- Support procurement, contracting or regulatory approvals
- Oversee implementation, assurance and stakeholder coordination
- Protect and commercialise intellectual assets
- Monitor compliance, resilience and performance
- Support continuous innovation and transformation
Representative mandates
- Developing an enterprise or public-institution AI governance framework
- Advising a central bank or regulator on technology-enabled supervision
- Supporting a national digital transformation programme
- Advising on major technology procurement and implementation
- Developing data governance and privacy frameworks
- Supporting telecommunications licensing and regulatory reform
- Protecting and commercialising intellectual property portfolios
- Advising investors on technology transactions
- Supporting universities and research institutions in commercialising innovation
- Managing cyber incidents and digital regulatory exposure
Illustrative. Client names and commercial details are withheld where confidentiality obligations apply.
Why Ligomarc
Technology mandates sit at the intersection of law, finance, regulation, governance, infrastructure and institutional strategy.
Ligomarc combines technology and intellectual property capability with experience in financial services, public institutions, infrastructure, tax, disputes, investment and enterprise transformation. This allows us to advise not only on technology contracts or compliance, but on the broader strategic outcomes technology is intended to achieve.
Through this Strategic Advisory Platform, Ligomarc helps Enterprises, Governments, Financiers and Infrastructure Players build, finance, govern, transform and protect institutions, investments and enterprises that contribute to Africa's long-term prosperity.
Controlled Manuscript Position
The manuscript sequence is now restored:
Institutional Experience Applied. Our stewardship mandate was over a licensed national telecommunications operator, which means spectrum, licences, interconnection, network assets, subscriber data and vendor arrangements were managed operationally rather than reviewed from the outside. Our constitutional office experience governs how we approach the other half of this Platform: supervisory and enforcement powers, automated decisions, and the privacy and due process limits within which regulators must exercise them.
Platform leadership
Regional & continental frameworks
The AU Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection; the AU Data Policy Framework; the AU Continental Artificial Intelligence Strategy; the AfCFTA Protocol on Digital Trade and the AfCFTA Protocol on Intellectual Property Rights; the ARIPO Harare and Banjul Protocols; the Smart Africa agenda; national data protection, computer misuse, communications and intellectual property legislation, read against the constitutional guarantees of privacy and expression.
Contribution to the African Purposes
Honours African Culture & Heritage by protecting African creative works, traditional knowledge, genetic resources, cultural expressions and origin-linked products as ownable economic assets. Advances African Continental Integration through regional IP filings, digital trade rules and cross-border data flows. Advances African Institutional Stewardship through digital public infrastructure and data governance in the state. Supports African Family Businesses by turning brand and know-how into transferable, financeable assets.
Selected experience
All experience →Central bank and financial-sector regulator
Reported
End-to-end technology-governance framework for a central bank
A central bank and financial-sector regulator needed a technology-governance framework addressing both its own internal governance and its regulatory oversight of the sector, spanning data, cyber risk and digital supervision, and aligned to regional and continental policy frameworks.
- Technology
- Regulation
- Governance
Who we serve with this
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