The 2024 edition of the Global Innovative Index published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has been released and it gives a glimpse into the current state of global innovation in 133 countries. The major findings highlight progress as well as challenges across major stages of the innovation cycle.
The global Innovative Index is a developmental indices metric launched in 2007 to identify and determine metrics and methods that could completely capture the level of innovation in regions.
The innovative cycles include science and innovation investment, technological progress, technology adoption, and the socioeconomic impact of innovation.
Other indices like Institutions, Human Capital and Research, Infrastructure, Market Sophistication, Business Sophistication, Knowledge & Technology Outputs and Creative Outputs were also used to judge each economy to assess the level of innovation in their regions.
Key Findings
Investments in science and innovation experienced a significant decline in 2023 following a boom between 2020 and 2022.
Technological adoption witnessed a fast growth with the socioeconomic impact of innovation having a positive outlook. However, there were indications of slow progress in green technology.
There was an increase in labor productivity although the figures fell below average for the past decade.
The report showed a reduction in the number of people in extreme poverty in 2022 which halved when compared with 2005 records.
How African countries performed
The countries were categorized into High-income group, Upper middle-income group, Lower middle-income group and Low-income group.
Rwanda, Madagascar and Burundi emerged top three countries globally in the low-income category and were judged as performing above expectations for the level of development.
Other countries in this group include Togo, Uganda, Mozambique, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Mali and Niger.
South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Mauritius were listed in the upper middle-income group, while Tunisia, Kenya, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Algeria, Benin, Cameroon, Angola, Nigeria, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Tanzania all made it to the lower middle-income group.
Nigeria with a score of 17.1 ranked 113 globally and 12th in Africa. The country's highest ranking was in Human capital and research (78th), Creative outputs (87th) and Business sophistication (107th) while it ranked lowest in Infrastructure (127th), Institutions (125th) and Market sophistication, Knowledge and technology outputs (121st).
The top 10 African countries and their corresponding global ranking are highlighted below;
| 1 | 55 | Mauritius | 30.6 |
| 2 | 69 | South Africa | 28.3 |
| 3 | 87 | Botswana | 23.1 |
| 4 | 90 | Cabo Verde | 22.3 |
| 5 | 92 | Senegal | 22 |
| 6 | 96 | Kenya | 21 |
| 7 | 101 | Ghana | 20 |
| 8 | 102 | Namibia | 20 |
| 9 | 104 | Rwanda | 19.7 |
| 10 | 110 | Madagascar | 17.9 |
According to experts, there is a positive association between the innovation index and economic growth.
For African countries to grow economically and improve their innovation index, there is need to constantly monitor and improve funding for research and development, imparting entrepreneurial research attitudes in academics, and providing an enabling environment for business enterprises.
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