Intellectual property could raise Africa’s revenue

Poor African farmers can boost export revenues from agriculture by billions of dollars if they use intellectual property as part of their business plans, a report released at the World Economic Forum said today.

The report by Washington-based non-profit organisation Light Years IP and supported by Britain's Department for International Development, focuses on the potential intellectual property to raise income for low earning producers in sub-Saharan Africa.

Light Years CEO, Ron Layton says: "In the course of doing this study, we came to realise that across 14 products there could be an average increase of 230 to 350% in the income that could come back to the developing countries."

He added: "If that's applied to as many products as we think it can be applied to, that would take what is currently about $9 billion of exports, a year, up to the order of $20 to $27 billion of exports."

Among the products researched were Kenyan tea, Sudanese cotton, Ethiopian fine coffee, and Ethiopian leather. The world's poorest continent, Africa is home to a diverse variety of unique fauna and flora, providing ample opportunity to tap into a global market eager to consume the exotic. - Reuters