The National Commission on Research, Science and Technology (NCRST) says Namibia needs to do more to ensure that products and innovations developed locally are protected and can generate economic value.

During the NCRST's visit at Nkurenkuru in the Kavango West Region, the manager for Knowledge Management, Intellectual Property and Tech Transfer highlighted the importance of identifying products developed through research and innovation and protecting them through intellectual property rights.

Moses Molatendi elaborated on this during an interview after the engagement.

"Any product that you have produced, be it food, medicines, electronics, and anything else, is protected by a patent. And we also spoke about when you produce this product now, and you do not want it to look like any other products that are already in the market. What do you do? You then thought about the law of trademarks, where you come up with the logo, emblem, or a combination of both to differentiate your product from the existing products."

Molatendi also spoke about the potential for Namibian content creators to monetise their work on social media platforms. 

However, he said this can only become a reality once Namibia fulfils its obligations under the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and puts in place a policy framework that addresses online monetisation.

"How Namibians can be paid by creating content on social media is when Namibia has signed or ratified what is called the World Intellectual Property Organization Internet Treaties, one of which is the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty. It is a treaty of 1996 which we need to ratify. Once we ratify, we then come to our Parliament and say, 'Any law that deals with related matters online should be amended to speak to the current state of affairs. What are those? How to make sure that our content creators are paid, and for them to get paid, is obviously we have to have it in our law. And for you to have it in our law, you have to first ratify the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty. Because you cannot just expect YouTube and TikTok to start paying content creators for the likes and followers when your law is silent."

IUM Nkurenkuru Campus Director Hosiana Hitanwa also shared his view on the matter.

"He is talking about content creators. How people are creating content for them to earn, leaving… It is just about our ministry of information to take it up and see how they can also register with those institutions that will allow our people to be recognised and be funded or earn something, and in return they will also be able to pay tax for the country."