Innovation Ecosystems In Africa

Innovation Ecosystems in Africa aims to deepen and broaden the visibility and interrogation of African innovation systems in practice by offering unique analysis of the emergence, growth and future prospects of endogenous innovation practices and lessons across the continent. The stories depict systemic innovations in a range of critical development areas from health and education to leadership and entrepreneurialism, and span from North to South, and East to West, covering more than a dozen different African cities and countries. In addition to sharing knowledge about exciting but rarely acknowledged cases of innovation in Africa, the book serves also as a work to inform policymakers and practitioners throughout Africa on how to learn from experiences towards developing more enabling innovation ecosystems to nurture creativity and solve the problems that we have. This book provides policymakers, business and opinion leaders both inspiration and useful policy takeaways that can guide strategies and support concrete measures to foster and speed up the pace of developmentally impactful innovation on the continent. Innovation Ecosystems in Africa builds upon the work of the African Innovation Summit (AIS), by further examining how the innovation systems environments in Africa function (or not) to address the most basic conditions of socio-economic and institutional development required on the continent. In this volume, learning case studies identified alongside the second Africa Innovation Summit (Kigali, June 2018) examine various sectoral exemplars and transversal dimensions to help inform insights about how policymakers and practitioners might develop more effective and impactful innovation-driven strategies, ecosystems and enterprises. This edited collection uses multi-country, cross-sectoral case studies to advance an empirically grounded, appreciative investigation of how innovation is being used to address fundamental development challenges on the continent, and how the African innovation ecosystems could be made more enabling into the future.

This book emphasizes the need for promoting innovation on the African continent. It identifies the roadblocks for entrepreneurs and discusses ways for developing an ecosystem for innovators to pave a way through the barriers and create ground-breaking products and new technologies which meet consumers’ needs in Africa. In order to stimulate innovation in African countries, there is the need for a more appropriate approach for innovation to occur in a context of international openness to knowledge. This book adopts a practical approach, demonstrating how innovation is an important driver of economic growth and competitiveness. It shows that innovation in Africa should be driven by local people, in response to local problems, and that open technology and knowledge sharing are vital to this project. It further explores key enablers such as the discovery of innovative talent, overcoming barriers, building strategic partnerships and promoting innovation across the continent. The book places emphasis on the creation of an innovation ecosystem as a value-creating tool by stakeholders for nation building and growth in Africa. This book will be of interest to researchers, students, international agencies, governments, businesses and individuals interested in the field of innovation and its potentials. It will also be relevant to investors, manufacturers and other stakeholders involved in the economic development of Africa.

This book contains a number of case studies that examine the nature and origins of emerging high-end innovation hubs in Africa. It analyses, highlights and draws lessons from some of the most promising and successful innovation cases in Africa today, exploring the key factors driving their successful emergence, growth and future prospects.

The future of Africa is bright. Innovation, and not aid, is the answer. McLean Sibanda believes that Africa must be deliberate about its economic development and that change requires champions, and importantly, fertile enabling environments. In Nuts & Bolts you will gain unique perspectives on challenges faced by leaders overseeing a turnaround in any organisation, and the thought processes behind innovation initiatives that yielded value. McLean provides practical insights on innovation and entrepreneurship for Africa's development through a narrative of his seven years of repositioning Sub-Saharan Africa's first internationally recognised Science and Technology Park, The Innovation Hub. Included, too, are reflections from entrepreneurs who have all gone on to build successful businesses which will be useful for anyone working on a start-up or innovation, particularly institutions set up to create new products or services. The musings of various successful entrepreneurs and ecosystem builders provide relevant context, inspiration and examples as to how best make use of support programmes provided by incubators and organisations similar to The Innovation Hub. Nuts & Bolts is a book about hope, it is full of stories about real people and companies who are making a difference, with testimonies of entrepreneurs, experienced ecosystem builders and innovators. It captures deep insights from the considerable time McLean has spent with entrepreneurs and innovators, on the importance of inclusive innovation and entrepreneurship, and provides a mix of global experiences and entrepreneurship narratives that eloquently sketch out the 'nuts and bolts' for entrepreneurship and innovation. 'I hope this book will be of value to those wanting to make a difference, or be the difference, in solving many challenges faced by our world today, and in developing new products and services to create new market opportunities for a better world.' - McLean Sibanda.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of role of entrepreneurship, technology commercialisation and innovation policy for the achievement of economic development and prosperity in African societies. It adopts a broad innovation systems approach. The book examines entrepreneurship, innovation, and technology commercialisation alongside context-specific factors associated with them. It also provides an interdisciplinary perspective, by discussing the above disciplines in a connected way. This book is presented in three distinct parts. It starts by discussing entrepreneurship and the state of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Africa. It then moves on to present technology commercialisation in Africa, before finally discussing the future directions for entrepreneurship, technology commercialisation and innovation policy. This broad picture provided in the book enables the reader to grasp the relevant messages, whilst the detailed analysis applies world-class theories and frameworks to deepen the readers understanding of key concepts and issues examined.

The hope and hype about African digital entrepreneurship, contrasted with the reality on the ground in local ecosystems. In recent years, Africa has seen a digital entrepreneurship boom, with hundreds of millions of dollars poured into tech cities, entrepreneurship trainings, coworking spaces, innovation prizes, and investment funds. Politicians and technologists have offered Silicon Valley-influenced narratives of boundless opportunity and exponential growth, in which internet-enabled entrepreneurship allows Africa to "leapfrog" developmental stages to take a leading role in the digital revolution. This book contrasts these aspirations with empirical research about what is actually happening on the ground. The authors find that although the digital revolution has empowered local entrepreneurs, it does not untether local economies from the continent's structural legacies.

This study—which includes a pilot intervention in Kenya—aims to further the state of knowledge about the emerging trend of disruptive agricultural technologies (DATs) in Africa, with a focus on supply-side dynamics. The first part of the study is a stocktaking analysis to assess the number, scope, trend, and characteristics of scalable disruptive technology innovators in agriculture in Africa. From a database of 434 existing DAT operations, the analysis identified 194 as scalable. The second part of the study is a comparative case study of Africa’s two most successful DAT ecosystems in Kenya and Nigeria, which together account for half of Sub-Saharan Africa’s active DATs. The objective of these two case studies is to understand the successes, challenges, and opportunities faced by each country in fostering a conducive innovation ecosystem for scaling up DATs. The case study analysis focuses on six dimensions of the innovation ecosystem in Kenya and Nigeria: finance, regulatory environment, culture, density, human capital, and infrastructure. The third part of the study is based on the interactions and learnings from a pilot event to boost the innovation ecosystem in Kenya. The Disruptive Agricultural Technology Innovation Knowledge and Challenge Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, brought together more than 300 key stakeholders from large technology companies, agribusiness companies, and public agencies; government representatives and experts from research and academic institutions; and representatives from financial institutions, foundations, donors, and venture capitalists. Scaling Up Disruptive Agricultural Technologies in Africa concludes by establishing that DATs are demonstrating early indications of a positive impact in addressing food system constraints. It offers potential entry points and policy recommendations to facilitate the broader adoption of DATs and improve the overall food system.

Technology and Innovation are playing a big part in shaping Africa's future and will continue to do so. This collection of essays on the 'New face of Africa' posits an African continent where technology, innovation and entrepreneurship create new opportunities for even further growth on the continent. The uptake and growth of mobile telephony on the continent, for instance, has been indicative of this. The continent has been a leader in innovations such as mobile money with innovation hubs springing up across the continent facilitating a generation of young tech entrepreneurs. Governments are also making significant investments in ICT development, but much more can and should be done. We look at a wide array of issues that affect the creation, growth and sustainability of startup and innovation ecosystems around the continent. The book does not seek to address issues at the level of a specific country or locality, but instead looks at things from a broad and high level, with the intention of highlighting issues that are pertinent across borders and cultures. Indeed, some aspects may apply more within some country or culture than others (“Africa is not a country”). The book is divided into two parts: The first, “Investigating Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Africa”, takes a look at the current state of things and makes observations of what progress has been made, existing challenges and opportunities as well as providing specific recommendations that startups, investors and government can use to further technology innovation and entrepreneurship on the continent.The second part “In Search of a Model for Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Ecosystems that fits the African Context” takes a close up view of three innovative economies: Silicon Valley, China and Israel, from which we try to glean a few lessons about startup ecosystems that could be applied within the African context in order to come up with a (perhaps hybrid) model that works best for the continent and specific nations within the continent.