Botswana rated 9th in Innovation

Botswana has been listed among the top 10 most innovative countries in Sub Saharan Africa.

This is according to a report by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) that evaluated innovation levels across 130 economies to determine the most innovative markets in the world in 2022.

Sixteen (16) out of the 25 economies from Sub-Saharan Africa covered this year improved their ranking and Botswana took the biggest leap forward, reaching 86th position in the whole world and 9th in Africa.

In so doing Botswana has overtaken Kenya (88th) among the top three for the region.

Other notable improvers within the region are Mauritius (45th), Ghana (95th), Namibia (96th) and Senegal (99th). South Africa remains unchanged in 61st place.

The 2022 Global Innovation Index (GII) reportedly measured each economy’s innovative capacity and output by focusing on a long list of criteria such as human capital, institutions, technology and creative output, as well as market and business sophistication, among others.

“The GII ranking is based on performance across seven pillars that include: Institutions that deal with human capital and research, Infrastructure, Market sophistication, Business sophistication, Knowledge and technology outputs and Creative outputs,” it notes.

Overall, Switzerland is listed as the most innovative economy in the world in 2022 - for the 12th year in a row - followed by the United States, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. China is nearing the top 10, while Turkey and India enter the top 40 for the first time, according to the GII 2022.

Report of the Determinants of the Botswana Innovation System by Gerd Koecker on Botswana’s innovation growth notes that as innovative firms grow faster than average and are more likely to survive during a recession, a strong innovation support policy may be a promising approach to enable companies to cope with any economic crisis.