Kenya has been ranked the most innovative country in East Africa, as well as the fifth most innovative country in Africa. This is according to the Global Innovation Index 2017: Innovation feeding the world, which is a partnership between the Cornell University, INSEAD, and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).
Kenya came in fifth after South Africa, Mauritius, Morocco and Tunisia in Africa. It ranked third in Sub-Saharan Africa and globally it was ranked position 80, outperforming her development-level peers. The region of sub-Saharan Africa is considered to be performing well in innovation because, since 2012, it has got the largest group of innovator achievers out of all the other regions such as Kenya and Tanzania.
According to the report, the region performs well due to the fact that it has the highest score in institutions and market sophistication as well as a high score in business development, infrastructure and in effort to improve human capital.
The report, which usually surveys about 130 countries, measures the innovation capacity and performance in areas such as education, political environment, infrastructure and business sophistication. Being its 10th edition, the index focused on innovation in agriculture and food systems. With global demand expected to rise in coming years, innovation is expected sustain the productivity growth required to meet the rising demand.
According to Bruno Lanvin, INSEAD Executive Director for Global Indices, “We are already witnessing the rapid, worldwide emergence of ‘digital agriculture’, which includes drones, satellite-based sensors, and field robotics. However, digital agriculture will not solve the hunger problem in the world; smart agriculture will make the difference. Now there is an urgent need for ‘smart agriculture’ more than ever to optimise supply and distribution chains and foster creative new business models.”
According to the report, Switzerland is the leading country in the seventh year running, followed by Sweden, Netherlands, USA and the UK, in that order.
