By Rudo Saungweme

Chief Executive Officer for AfricaBio has urged businesses to widely use Intellectual Property (IP) system which he said gives a competitive advantage to enterprises.

Siya Ntutela said this today at the conference on Intellectual Property, innovation and value addition for sustainable development in Africa being held at Meikles hotel in Harare.

"The IP system is said to give a competitive advantage to enterprises. Therefore, one can expect to see all businesses widely using it. Unfortunately, this is not what is generally observed in Africa," said Ntutela.

He said that SMEs were the category of businesses that uses the IP system less than the others.

The CEO said that the SMEs were failing to use the IP system because of lack of knowledge on the importance of the system.

"In Africa, it is quite common to see SMEs that ignore the existence of the IP system, who are not aware of the benefit of using IP as competitive advantage, who ignore what the IP system is about and who do not see the relevance of IP in their strategy, “said the CEO.

Ntutela said that most of the SMEs could not afford qualified employees in IP thereby the structure is sometimes more focused on operational aspects of management.

Ntutela encouraged all SMEs to use IP system saying that it increases productive capabilities.

The adoption of IP system by SMEs in Zimbabwe will enhance industrial, technological and managerial knowledge in our drive to attain Vision 2030.