Africa’s most creative economies have been ranked much above Nigeria as Mauritius, South Africa, Botswana, Kenya, and Morocco.
This is supported by the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2022 report from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which was published on Monday.
The GII2022 report tracks the current state of global innovation and identifies areas where innovation is crucial to advancing the development of concepts, ventures, and solutions that address problems faced by citizens, such as fostering entrepreneurship, ensuring food security and local food production, fostering digital innovation for the future of work, and finding energy-related solutions.
According to the research, Kenya is one of the largest adopters of mobile phones and digital technologies on the continent, having registered 30,300 enterprises.
In addition to institutions, human capital, and research, knowledge, and technology outputs, Botswana, a newcomer to the list, is ranked in a number of other areas.
Indeed, Nigeria scored 16.9% and was ranked number 13 in Africa in the GII, which polled 132 nations worldwide.
With a score of 64.6%, Switzerland has the most innovative economy both internationally and within Europe. At 61.8%, the United States came in second, followed by Sweden (61.7%), the United Kingdom (59.7%), and the Netherlands (58%) in that order.
With a score of 57.8%, the Republic of Korea comes in sixth, followed by Singapore (57.3%), Germany (57.2%), Finland (56.9%), and Denmark (10th), all of which have the most creative economies.
With a score of 29.8%, South Africa came in at number 61 globally and second in Africa. With a score of 28.8%, Morocco, which came in eighth in the region, was ranked 67th overall. Africa’s most innovative economy, Mauritius, is placed 45th globally with a score of 34.4%.
With a score of 23.9%, Botswana placed third in Africa and 86th overall; Kenya placed fourth in Africa and was 88th globally.
Kenya was followed on the global map by Egypt, which came in at 89th overall and 15th in Africa with 22.7%.
Additionally, WIPO noted that over the past 20 years, Africa’s Internet and digital penetration has increased to about 570 million users, thanks to innovation that resulted in the installation of more than 1.2 million kilometers of Internet cables beneath the world’s oceans.
With the launch of Google’s Equiano and SpaceX’s Starlink, which will further increase internet penetration on the continent, WIPO also anticipated that these figures would continue to rise.
Governments in Africa are supporting the development of digital technologies by recognizing cryptocurrencies as respectable investments.
Disrupt Africa’s African Tech Startups Funding Report indicates that in 2021, start-ups in some of the most inventive countries on the continent raised a combined $1.9 billion. The majority of the continent’s unicorns are fintech companies, which have had great success in getting VC capital.
According to the Disrupt Africa report, the fintech industry in countries like Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, and others was the most alluring to investors in 2022. This industry received close to $1.5 billion in funding over the course of the year, accounting for 43.4% of all startup investments made in the continent.
According to Disrupt Africa’s African Tech Startups Funding Report, $3.3 billion in startup investments were made in Africa in 2022.
According to the research, 205 fintech startups raised money overall, with Nigerian firms accounting for nearly 40% of startups and 46% of fintech funding. With a $250 million round, the African unicorn Flutterwave led the group, followed by Moove ($181.8 million) and Yellow Card ($40 million).
With significant rounds funded by MNT-Halan ($150 million), Paymob ($50 million), and Khazna ($38 million), Egyptian fintechs also had a successful year.
The amount of money raised by the fintech industry in 2022 increased by 39.3% from the previous year.
Despite fintech’s dominance, financing was also provided to other industries. E-commerce and retail technology raised more than $556 million as the next-largest industry for startup funding in 2022, and e-health firms raised more than $189 million.
Logistics, ed-tech, energy, agri-tech, and transport were additional industries that received startup finance.
