Kenya Ranked The Third Most Iovative Country In Sub-Saharan Africa

In a new ranking looking at the most iovative country in the world, Kenya has been ranked number three in Sub-Saharan Africa. The East African giant comes in behind South Africa and Mauritius.

The ranking is according to the Global Iovative Index 2017 which is co-authored by Cornell University, INSEAD and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

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Each year, the Global Iovative Index, which is now in its tenth edition, surveys about 130 economies using dozens of metrics which include patent filings to education spending providing decision makers a high-level look at the iovative activity that increasingly drives economic and social growth.

It also looks at the increased gap in iovative capacity between developed and developing nations and lackluster growth rates for research and development activities, both at the government and corporate levels.

“Iovation is the engine of economic growth in an increasingly knowledge-based global economy, but more investment is needed to help boost human creativity and economic output,” said WIPO Director General Francis Gurry.

“Iovation can help transform the current economic upswing into longer-term growth.”

Switzerland, Sweden, the Netherlands, the USA and the UK were named the world’s most iovative countries. Kenya was ranked alongside India and Vietnam which are outperforming their development peers.

Switzerland led the most iovative country rankings for the seventh consecutive year with high-income economies taking 24 of the top 25 spots. China is the exception at 22.

“A group of middle and lower-income economies performs significantly better on iovation than their current level of development would predict,” the report says.

“A total of 17 economies comprise these ‘iovation achievers’ this year, a slight increase from 2016.”

“In total, nine come from the Sub-Saharan Africa region, including Kenya and Rwanda, and three economies come from Eastern Europe,” the study reveals.

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Sub-Saharan Africa draws its highest scores in institutions and market sophistication, where economies such as Mauritius, Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Rwanda, and Burkina Faso perform on par or better than some of their development-level peers in Europe and South East Asia, East Asia and Oceania.

Since 2012, Sub-Saharan Africa has counted for more “iovation achiever” countries than any other region. Kenya, Rwanda, Mozambique, Uganda, Malawi, Madagascar and Senegal stand out for being iovation achievers this year, and several times in the previous years. Burundi and the United Republic of Tanzania became iovation achievers this year.

The report authors went on to advice that preserving and building upon this iovation momentum in Sub-Saharan Africa is key to more development.