GII 2024: Sustaining the Rise of Top-Notch African Innovation Clusters

20 de noviembre de 2024

By McLean Sibanda (Bigen Group), Philippe Kuhutama Mawoko (Université du Kwango), Lukovi Seke (AUDA-NEPAD), Loretta Asiedu, Davide Bonaglia, Lorena Rivera León, Mody Oluwatobiloba and Sacha Wunsch-Vincent (WIPO)
The dynamic transformations in Africa showcases growing commitment to an innovation-led continent.

Africa is undergoing a dynamic transformation in science and technology, showcasing a growing commitment to innovation across the continent. This is supported by African Union (AU) Policies and strategies such as the Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa 2015-2024 (STISA-2024), soon STISA-2034, as the continental framework for accelerating Africa's transition to an innovation-led and knowledge-based economy within the overall framework of the AU Agenda 2063.

On September 26, 2024, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) launched the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2024. Table 1 below shows how African economies performed in the GII 2024 in terms of overall, but also their input and outputs rankings. The new WIPO GII Innovation Ecosystems & Data Explorer 2024 can be used to access detailed country briefs, which delve deeper into each country’s innovation ecosystem.

  • Mauritius leads the region, climbing from rank 57th to 55th; it is also singled out among the economies in the GII which has climbed ranks the most since 2019.
  • Morocco, ranks 66th, and it is singled out among the economies in the GII which has climbed the most ranks since 2014.
  • South Africa holds the 69th position, followed by Tunisia at 81st and Egypt at 86th.
  • Botswana ranks 87th, while Cabo Verde has improved from 91st to 90th, Senegal moved up from 93rd to 92nd, and Kenya made a significant leap from 100th to 96th.[1]

Table 1: GII 2024 Rankings of African Economies

Source: WIPO Global Innovation Index 2024

In the GII, African economies most frequently outperform on innovation relative to their level of development and as compared to other world regions. Figure 1 shows how African economies perform relative to their level of development (i.e. GDP per capita).

  • Rwanda, Madagascar, Senegal, South Africa, Burundi, and Morocco emerge as consistent innovation overperformers within the region.
  • Rwanda has been an innovation overperformer since 2012, while Madagascar has shown steady progress since 2016.
  • Senegal and Morocco have also made considerable strides in terms of innovation relative to their GDP per capita, highlighting their potential as emerging innovation hubs.
  • Finally, South Africa has maintained strong performance on this metric since 2018, while Burundi has exhibited notable improvements in recent years.

Several other African economies are performing at expectations for their level of development, as represented by the blue dots in the bubble chart. These countries include Cabo Verde, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Mauritius, Nigeria, Togo, Tunisia, the United Republic of Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Figure 1: Innovation Performance of African Economies Relative to Their Level of Development

Note: Bubbles sized according to population. The cubic spline trendline shows the expected level of innovation performance at different levels of GDP per capita for all the economies covered in the GII 2024.

Source: WIPO Global Innovation Index 2024.

The African aspiration to move up the innovation ladder is also evident also in the emergence of significant Science & Technology (S&T) clusters across the continent.

Since 2016, the GII has adopted a bottom-up approach to identifying the world's leading regions based on their innovation capabilities and two essential metrics. The first tracks the location of inventors listed in patent applications under the WIPO Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), while the second focuses on the authorship of published scientific articles.

For the first time, an African cluster joins the top 100 in 2024 – with Cairo joining the GII's top 100 global WIPO GII S&T clusters. Previously no African city or region had been part of this illustrious top cluster grouping.

Beyond the showing of Cairo in the global top 100, the GII 2024 has highlighted the 50 top S&T clusters in Africa – i.e. the cities and regions where science and technology concentrate but which – except Cairo – do not yet make it into the global top 100.[2]

In this top 50 African cluster ranking, following Cairo, the top five African clusters are Johannesburg / Pretoria[3] (South Africa), Cape Town (South Africa), Tunis (Tunisia), and Alexandria (Egypt). Egypt leads the continent with 11 clusters, followed by South Africa with 8 clusters, led by Johannesburg. Morocco ranks third with 5 clusters, led by Rabat, while Nigeria and Tunisia each have 4 clusters, led by Ibadan and Tunis, respectively. Ethiopia and Ghana both have 2 clusters each, led by Addis Ababa and Accra. Kenya, with Nairobi as its leading cluster, rounds out the top list with one cluster.

Table 2: Top Science Clusters in Africa

Source: WIPO Global Innovation Index 2024, Science and Technology Clusters

Figure 2 visually represents the geographical distribution of these top S&T clusters across the continent, as identified in the GII 2024 report.

Figure 2: Top science clusters in Africa

Source: WIPO Global Innovation Index 2024, Science and Technology Clusters

Figure 3 provides a comprehensive view of the distribution of scientific and technological activities across Africa. Each point is representing an inventor of a PCT patent or an author of a scientific paper. Areas such as Cairo, Johannesburg, and Ibadan show dense clusters of activity, reflecting their status as leading innovation hubs in Africa. However, there are also regions where substantial activity is observed outside the top-ranked clusters. Central and West Africa, for instance, show emerging activity, with notable points in Nigeria, Ghana, and Cameroon.

Figure 3: Distribution of scientific and technological activity across Africa

Source: WIPO Global Innovation Index 2024, Science and Technology Clusters

It is important to note that African clusters are primarily driven by scientific publications rather than PCT patenting activity – so they are, on the surface, more science clusters with scientific publication activity rather than complete science and technology clusters, with substantial PCT filing activity.

However, it would be incorrect to assume that African S&T clusters do not engage in patenting and IP activity at all. Indeed, while some of these clusters have relatively modest PCT filing activity, the countries in question – and most likely the clusters in questions – demonstrate growing domestic patenting activity at the national level. That is, economies like Egypt, South Africa, Morocco, and Tunisia, where the top African S&T clusters are located, see a growing patent filing activity by residents at the national IP office.

Indeed, over the past two decades, Africa has demonstrated a promising increase in patent filing, starting from approximately a thousand patents in 2004 to about 3,500 annually by 2022.[4] The growth has averaged around 4.7 percent annually – although marked by fluctuations. African inventors are not only generating new ideas but are also seeking to protect and commercialize them.

Figure 4: Trends in Patent Filings by Origin in Africa, 2004-2022

Source: WIPO IP Statistics Data Center

This trend is also reflected in the patent activity of individual African economies. Several countries have shown increases in patent filings between 2004 and 2022. Madagascar leads with an impressive annual growth rate of 192 percent, indicating robust advancement in its IP activities. Benin follows closely with 170 percent, and Uganda with 119 percent, albeit sometimes from low levels.

Other notable mentions include Burkina Faso, the Republic Democratic of the Congo, and Mali, each with an annual growth rate of about 68 percent. Egypt, with a 66 percent annual growth rate over 2004-2022, also demonstrates growing patenting. South Africa, while already having a substantial number of patent filings, continues to grow at 60 percent annually, reinforcing its position as one of the continent's leading innovation hubs. Kenya also increased the number of patents filed by residents by a factor of ten, from only 31 patents in 2004 to 367 in 2022.

Table 3 provides an overview of IP activities across African countries from 2018 to 2022, including patents filed by residents, PCT filings, trademarks, and industrial designs. South Africa leads across all categories, with 5,221 patents, 1,141 PCT filings, 114,312 trademarks, and 4,323 industrial designs. Egypt also demonstrates a significant level of activity, with high numbers in trademark filings (110,375) and industrial designs (9,248). Kenya and Nigeria are also worth mentioning, with 1,418 and 1,231 patents filed by residents, respectively. Morocco and Algeria, instead, show strong trademark activities, with 49,043 and 29,865 filings by residents. Ghana also stands out for its high number of industrial design filings (2,382), suggesting a focus on creative industries.

Table 3: Overview of IP Activity in African Countries

Source: WIPO IP Statistics Data Center

Based on these excellent results, the coming years will be critical to systematically and persistently develop and ramp up key African innovation systems and clusters.

Adequate innovation data collection and analysis – also feeding into future editions of the GII and allowing more countries to be covered – should be treated as a priority.

More detailed insights on the African innovation landscape will be available in the upcoming 4th edition of the African Innovation Outlook (AIO-2024).

References

Footnotes

[1] For a more detailed analysis of Africa’s innovation performance, see Mawoko et al. (2024) in their discussion on the GII and Africa's industrialization strategies, in the upcoming African Innovation Outlook 2023.

[2] The GII cluster methodology employs a density-based spatial clustering (DBSCAN) algorithm to identify areas with high concentrations of inventors and scientific authors. For Africa, the density parameter is adjusted to reflect the comparatively lower rate of patent filings and scientific publications, ensuring emerging clusters are accurately captured. The methodology balances the geographic spread of innovation while ensuring a robust representation of innovation activities across different regions.

[3] Johannesburg includes Pretoria, which is 65 km away.