05 Mar 2024

 Botswana will stand tall on the global stage as a hub of innovation and intellectual property excellence.

Speaking during the signing of an agreement  between Morupule Coal Mine (MCM) and the Companies and Intellectual Property Authority (CIPA) on Monday, the MCM CEO, Mr Edwin Elias, said the collaboration marked a significant milestone in commitment to fostering innovation and intellectual property development of Botswana.

Mr Elias said the agreement was a testament to their dedication to the growth and progress of Botswana.

He said over the next five years, Morupule Coal Mine and CIPA would join forces to focus on activities geared towards generation, protection, commercialisation and management of intellectual property.

He said the collaborative effort would contribute to realisation of the collective vision of a more innovative and economically empowered Botswana.

Mr Elias said Morupule Coal Mine had set ambitious targets, with an aim to achieve 50 per cent citizen spend, equivalent to P1.5 billion by 2027.

He said they intend to create 3000 jobs through Citizen Economic Empowerment Programme (CEEP), adding that their CEEP delivery streams focused on enterprise and supplier development, governance and performance, change management and stakeholder collaboration.

He said at the end of December 2023, MCM had spent 54 per cent of its budget on citizen owned companies against a set target of 35 per cent.

He said CEEP had facilitated a total spend of P601 million on citizen owned companies supporting a total of 1 135 jobs through MCM contractors, underscoring the commitment to fostering economic growth and employment opportunities for citizens.

He also said the agreement signing accelerates progress towards attainment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Botswana, with specific focus on Socio-Economic Development.

He said the strategic partnership with CIPA will play a pivotal role in empowering citizen companies and individuals to generate, protect and commercialise their intellectual property rights.

CIPA’s Caretaker Registrar General, Mr Joel Ramaphoi, said the agreement would enable both CIPA and MCM to create and support Botswana’s innovation ecosystem through incubation, protection, and development of innovative ideas into viable enterprises that will contribute to employment creation, poverty eradication as well as economic growth and development.

Mr Ramaphoi said through the agreement, CIPA would ensure that MCM and its citizen companies, entrepreneurs under the MCM CEEP, were fully capacitated and supported on intellectual property matters.

“We intend to ensure that all intellectual property produced by these entrepreneurs are fully registered and protected so they can integrate IP as part of their business strategy for their success, and to this end, a team of intellectual property experts will be fully availed to MCM as and when needed,” he said.

He said they had already identified 10 companies already working with MCM to be part of a project that would be starting in March 2024 with a key international partner, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

The project would run for six months, and 50 SMMEs would be mentored by WIPO and CIPA to use IP as a strategy for business success and competitiveness.

Mr Ramaphoi said those developments provided an opportunity for entrepreneurs and corporations to be innovative and creative to use knowledge and IP to do business in a way that would make them successful and globally competitive even in unstable economic times. ends