Kenya Ranked Africa's Third Most Innovative Country in Sub Saharan Africa

Kenya has been ranked Sub Saharan Africa's third most innovative country in the Global Innovative Index (GII) 2018.

The index named access to microfinance loans, innovation linkages and exports of creative services, workforce efficiency, printing and other media as some of the Kenya's strengths.

“Kenya achieves high levels of innovation relative to its level of development, a continuous performance since 2011,” the report states.

South Africa is ranked the continent's most innovative country, followed by Mauritius. Kenya is ranked 78th globally, while South Africa is 58th.

South Africa took first place as a result of its sophisticated market and business sector, access to credit, market capitalization, university and industry research collaborations, cluster development and intellectual property payments.

“South Africa is improving in the quality of its science papers and its universities, especially for the University of Cape Town, the University of Witwatersrand and Stellenbosch University,” the report reads.

Mauritius was found to have a strong political, business and credit environments.

Globally, Switzerland maintained its number-one spot in the GII ranking published annually by Cornell University, INSEAD and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom, Singapore, United States, Finland, Denmark, Germany and Ireland were the top ten most innovative countries.