I operated as Open Scholarship Manager for the Department of Library Services University of Pretoria, South Africa for 6 years. During this time we implemented an Open Access policy for the mandatory submission of research papers in our institutional repository UPSpace, called openUP and succeeded in the implementation. I also managed the mandatory policy for the submission of electronic theses and dissertations to our UPeTD repository. I am passionale about the role that Open access can play in enhancing African research.