On a list of Africans committed to the creative industry on the continent, Lorraine Boya’s name ranks high. Whilst most of her work is behind the scenes, she has helped countless creatives and organisations across the continent understand their rights where intellectual property is involved, especially how it plays out in African contexts.
Intellectual Property (IP) is the legal recognition of one’s ideas, creativity, and innovation. Lorraine wants to make sure every creative understands that they own what they create.
“If you make things, you own things. And that ownership can change your life, if you understand it.”
Lorraine’s passion for the success and advancement of the creative industry is backed by years spent working, studying, researching, and advising on activity in the creative industry. Her experience exposed the gap between what is intellectual property and how creatives understand it. She found that it is often hidden in jargon and made to appear as hallowed knowledge. Intellectual Property are rights, and like all rights, creatives should know theirs.
This is where her new platform Loch & Key comes in. Its goal is to share tools, translate IP into simple terms, highlight stories, strategies, and systems that affect creatives’ rights. It’s designed to give creatives the confidence to unlock their value, make informed choices, protect their work, understand ownership, monetisation and equip them with keys to navigate their creative futures in what she describes as “often-invisible systems that shape their value.”
“With every situation I’ve analyzed, every artist l’ve supported, and every legal grey area l’ve unraveled, one truth has stayed with me: most creatives not only need more money or exposure, they need more tools,” she explains.
From content creators and influencers to innovators, artists, writers and designers, this is an inclusive platform where knowledge meets lived experience.
“Creativity deserves more than applause. It deserves a plan.” – Lorraine Bgoya.
