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AFRICA’S INNOVATION KINGS, MEASURED BY PATENTS
Patents are not an iron-clad measure of a country’s innovation, but they are usual broad indicators of the pace at which a nation is inventing and creating new ways of doing things. In Africa, based on the patents reported here for 2009, the year they were granted, the continent’s outlook is not bright:
Source: http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/cst_utl.htm
| Rank | Country | Number |
| 1 | South Africa | 93 |
| 2 | Kenya | 7 |
| 3 | Egypt | 3 |
| 4 | Zimbabwe | 4 |
| 5 | Morocco | 1 |
| 6 | Liberia | 0 |
| 7 | Madagascar | 0 |
| 8 | Libya | 0 |
| 9 | Senegal | 0 |
| 10 | Mauritius | 0 |
| 11 | Sudan | 0 |
| 12 | Uganda | 0 |
| 13 | Zambia | 0 |
| 14 | Tanzania | 0 |
| 15 | Algeria | 0 |
| 16 | Nigeria | 0 |
| 17 | Mali | 0 |
| 18 | Tunisia | 0 |
| 19 | Cote d'ivoire | 0 |
| 20 | Cameroon | 0 |
| 21 | Ghana | 0 |
| 22 | Malawi | 0 |
| 23 | Mauritania | 0 |
| 24 | Seychelles | 0 |
| 25 | Democratic Republic of Congo | 0 |
| 26 | Ethiopia | 0 |
| 27 | Guinea | 0 |
| 28 | Benin | 0 |
| 29 | Burkina Faso | 0 |
| 30 | Gabon | 0 |
| 31 | Namibia | 0 |
| 32 | Swaziland | 0 |
Source: http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/cst_utl.htm
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CONNECT THE DOTS
God, Geography and History; Why Kenya and South Africa Could Rule Africa
Patents are a crude measure of a country’s innovativeness. Crude because the number of patents registered also depends on how fast the patents offices register inventions and innovations.
In Africa, though, South Africa and Kenya are the innovation leaders when it comes, especially, to digital products and software. Then South Africa beats every other African country hands down when it comes to innovation in medicine.
Though some data shows Nigeria poised to be Africa’s largest economy in five to 15 years, the fact that it is not a particularly innovative country raises questions about whether it will ever really attain economic greatness.
Though there is no clear connection, it is also striking looking at the 40 highest towns, that the majority are in Kenya; however all the top innovative African nations have cities in the mix – including Zimbabwe which, otherwise, many would dismiss as a basket case following the last ten years of disastrous rule by President Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF.
The altitude table might also explain why Kenya, Ethiopia, and Morocco are world champions at the marathon, and the middle distance races. Living at high altitude, and training at low altitude has been shown to boost athletic performance.
It is worth investigating if high altitude also boosts creativity. If God (for those who believe) and history put peoples in the countries and geography they inhabit, then countries like Kenya and South Africa, if they ever become Africa’s economic and political powers (South Africa is already Africa’s economic king), they know who to thank.
Related Posts:
- AFRICA’S INNOVATION KINGS, MEASURED BY PATENTS
- THE 40 HIGHEST TOWNS AND CITIES IN AFRICA