Morocco, Mauritius, SA hailed as Africa’s most innovative countries in 2022
Morocco, Mauritius and South Africa are ranked as the most innovative African countries as they have significantly moved up closer to developed economies in the rankings over the past few years.
The 15th edition of the Global Innovation Index released recently by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has highlighted Africa’s success in 2022 noting that many countries on the continent have climbed up the global tech ladder to join the rest of the world in running an economy driven by innovation.
Morocco, Tunisia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe performed above expectations under the lower-middle income category while Rwanda, Madagascar, Mozambique, and Burundi “outperformed on innovation relative to their development” in the low-income group.
South Africa exceeded expectations in the upper middle-income group while Mauritius performed within expectations in the same group. Ghana and Senegal’s innovation performance was in line with their economic development in the lower-middle income category, as well as Ethiopia, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Togo, and Niger in the low-income group.
The rest of the nations, including the continent’s biggest economy Nigeria and the highly innovative Botswana performed below expectations. Guinea is the least innovative country this year in an index that surveyed 31 African countries. Compared to the rest of the world, Africa is still the least innovative continent.
The survey ranks Switzerland as the world’s top destination for innovation followed by the United States, with China and G7 members Japan, France, Italy, and Canada failing to make it to the top 10 list. In recent years, Africa significantly lagged behind in digital transformation, but Covid-19, which forced many employees to work from their homes, acted as a much-needed catalyst in building industries around frontier technologies.
Consequently, business leaders realized urgency in creating solutions around cloud computing uptake, blockchain development, and artificial intelligence while upscaling their staff on these technologies.
