Legal expert Moses Nkomo is a strong believer in the capacity of Africa to rise above its present challenges and setbacks to take its place on the global stage.
The young lawyer sees strong intellectual property regimes as one of the main mechanisms to achieve this goal.
“My calling is to demystify the subject of intellectual property and to help people unlock it’s potential for socio-economic transformation,” says Moses. He is among the 30 Zimbabwean youth to be invited to participate in the 2014 Washington Fellowship, part of President Obama’s first Young African Leaders Initiative.
He says he was overjoyed to learn that he had been selected for the 2014 Fellowship and ran around the office showing everyone the email from the acceptance email.
He will spend six weeks at Yale University, an institution he has always dreamed of attending because of its prestige in the fields of law and business. He is determined to use this opportunity to learn how to better leverage the potential of intellectual property rights for economic development in Zimbabwe and Africa.
“As I walk or drive in the city or in the country, I see intellectual property rights whose owners are oblivious of their potential for social and economic transformation at individual, corporate or national level, and I pray that I may be used to open their eyes so that they may see,” notes the Senior Partner at Donsa-Nkomo & Mutangi Legal Practice.
Moses holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Law, a Master’s Degree in Intellectual Property and is currently studying to earn an Executive Master’s Degree in Business Administration.
During his career, he has presented papers on the subject of intellectual property locally and internationally and was a lecturer for the WIPO Summer School for Africa in 2010 and 2011. He is currently working on a number of publications for both academia and business.
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His flagship company, IPIQ Business Solutions Limited, was established in 2012 and aims to champion the integration of intellectual property into mainstream corporate strategy for Zimbabwean and African enterprises to secure and sustain competitive advantage.
Through his work, he has registered several companies with a diversity of interests including energy and mining.
He taught intellectual property law at the University of Zimbabwe between 2007 and 2013 and currently lectures on enforcement of intellectual property rights at Africa University in Mutare.
Upon returning from Yale, he plans to conduct trainings, in Zimbabwe and beyond, on the business aspects of intellectual property for creators of intellectual property (artists, inventors, innovators). He also hopes to contribute to the development of a robust intellectual property regime in Zimbabwe by informing the national intellectual property policy.
You can follow Moses via Twitter: @dnmlaw2011
