You won’t find an African country among the world’s top 25 performers for innovation, but several low-income African countries are outperforming their peers based on GDP, earning the designation “innovation achievers.”
Co-published by Cornell University, the World Intellectual Property Organization, and A.T. Kearney, the Global Innovation Index goes beyond traditional measures of innovation such as research and development, and has evolved into a benchmarking tool used to evaluate progress. It ranks 141 countries’ strengths and weaknesses on 81 indicators including institutions, human capital, infrastructure, market sophistication, business sophistication, knowledge and technology outputs and creative outputs. These are the 13 most innovative countries in Africa, along with their overall global rankings out of 141.
13. Namibia Ranked No. 107 out of 141 countries
12. Mali – Ranked No. 105 out of 141 countries
11. Cabo Verde – Ranked No. 103 out of 141 countries
10. Burkina Faso – Ranked No. 102 out of 141 countries
9. Malawi – Ranked No. 98 out of 141 countries
8. Mozambique – Ranked No. 95 out of 141 countries
7. Rwanda – Ranked No. 94 out of 141 countries
6. Kenya – Ranked No. 92 out of 141 countries
5. Botswana – Ranked No. 90 out of 141 countries
4. Senegal – Ranked No. 84 out of 141 countries
3. Seychelles – Ranked No. 65th out of 141 countries
2. South Africa – Ranked No. 60 out of 141 countries
1. Mauritius – Ranked No. 49 globally out of 141 countries