Africa’s largest economy, Nigeria missed out on the top 10 most innovative countries in Africa.
Investors King learnt that Africa’s largest economy, Nigeria missed out on the top 10 most innovative countries in Africa list as released by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).
Accordingly, Mauritius was ranked the most innovative country in Africa, followed by South Africa which was ranked second.
However, Mauritius was ranked 45th on the global stage while South Africa was ranked 61st.
It is alarming to realise that Africa’s largest economy, Nigeria, is missing from the top 100 most innovative countries in the world.
WIPO Global Innovative Index measures countries’ performances across seven areas which include infrastructure, institutions, creative output and market sophistication.
Other areas include knowledge and technology outputs, business sophistication, and lastly human capital and research.
Mauritius created one of the most notable upsets in the global list. Unexpectedly, the tiny country with less than 1.3 million population climbed seven places to the 45th position in the 2022 ranking.
The country was ranked high in the human development score. It was ranked above all other African countries.
Other countries which featured in the African top 10 include Morocco which was ranked 3rd in Africa and 67th in the world. Tunisia was ranked 4th in Africa and 73rd in the world.
Meanwhile, a closer look at the full list shows that Switzerland emerged as the most innovative country in the world. Switzerland will be topping the list for the 12th time in a row. The United States came second, followed by Sweden, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands in the 3rd, 4th and 5th positions respectively.
Nigeria was ranked 114th behind Ghana, Rwanda, Namibia, Egypt, Zimbabwe and Côte d’Ivoire.
Below is a list of the top 10 most innovative countries in Africa in 2022.
- Mauritius. (45th in global ranking)
- South Africa (61st in global ranking)
- Morocco. (67th in global ranking)
- Tunisia. (73rd in global ranking)
- Botswana. (86th in global ranking)
- Kenya. (88th in global ranking)
- Egypt. (89th in global ranking)
- Ghana. (95th in global ranking)
- Namibia. (96th in global ranking)
- Senegal. (99th in global ranking)