29 Apr 2024

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Botswana are creators of intellectual property (IP) and if well protected by the law, the artistic initiators of such creations and innovations will retain control over and profit from their work.

Officiating at the World Intellectual Property Day event at Ba Isago University recently, United States Ambassador to Botswana, Howard Van Vranken, emphasised the role of SMEs in diversifying Botswana’s economy through digitisation.

Reflecting on the day’s theme, “IP and The SDGs: Building our common future with innovation and creativity,” he said various US programmes were aimed at investing in Botswana and fostering trade links to nurture innovators and their creations.

Van Vranken commended Botswana for hosting the 15^th US-Africa Business Summit, which served as a significant platform to strengthen trade and investment ties between the United States and Botswana, particularly in Information Technology (IT), health, and energy sectors.

“The US had been collaborating with Botswana businesses to facilitate exports and had awarded grants to the private sector to enhance trade and bolster food security,” he said.

Encouraging Botswana’s pursuit of economic growth and innovation aligned with the SDGs, Van Vranken urged stakeholders to explore emerging technologies such as solar energy harvesting.

Joel Ramaphoi, the caretaker registrar general of the Botswana Companies and Intellectual Property Authority, said IP was driving innovation, fostering creativity and also promoting sustainable development.

Aligning IP initiatives with the National Vision 2036 and the Botswana Intellectual Property Policy of 2022, Ramaphoi said his firm belief was that intellectual property could propel Botswana towards achieving its aspirations of attaining high-income status.

Ramaphoi thanked the US government for its continuous support on IP matters, including their annual support for World IP Day commemoration and provision of beneficial trainings.

Addressing tertiary students participating in innovation competitions at the event, Ramaphoi encouraged them to view innovation and creativity as fundamental to economic transformation, employment generation, and poverty alleviation.

He urged them to aspire to be job creators and innovators, tackling issues such as low agricultural yields, emerging lifestyle diseases, and access to clean water and green energy with their innovations.

“Take it as a lesson that innovation and creativity are the key to economic transformation, employment and poverty alleviation,” he said.

All the tertiary students who made outstanding innovations such as an innovative electronic shopping cart, organic fertilisers granulator among others were awarded with prize money. Ends