Mauritius,South Africa,Kenya,Rwanda-Top Innovative Countries in Africa
According to the latest Global Innovation Index which ranks the innovation performance of 128 countries and economies around the world, based on 82 indicators,Mauritius,South Africa,Kenya,Rwanda,Mozambique,Botswana,Namibia,Malawi Make the List of Top Innovative Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Mauritius takes the top spot among all economies in the region (53rd), followed by South Africa (54th), Kenya (80th), Rwanda (83rd), Mozambique (84th), Botswana (90th), Namibia (93rd), and Malawi (98th).
Since 2012, Sub-Saharan Africa has counted more countries than any other region among the group of “innovation achievers” – countries that perform better than their level of development would predict. This year, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, and Uganda stand out. Better rankings on the indicators for institutions, business sophistication, and knowledge and technology output have allowed the region to catch up to Central and Southern Asia, and to overtake Northern Africa and Western Asia.
Average regional performance shows strengths in the ease of starting a business, ICTs, business-model creation, and relative expenditure on education, with weaknesses in firms conducting global R&D, high-tech exports, the quality of local universities and number of scientific publications. In general, further efforts are required in Human capital, Research and Infrastructure.
As economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa is slowing, the GII 2016 shows that Sub-Saharan Africa must preserve its current innovation momentum, while continuing to diversify economies away from oil production and commodity revenues.
It is not surprising to see that countries like Nigeria despite her great potentials is yet to make investments in innovation,that really shows how the country leads with no future.However,it is also time to passionately increase awareness on how Nigeria can become more innovative as to secure her future.
