Malawi rated highly on innovations, moves up

Malawi has excelled on innovations, moving four steps up on the global ranking to be among the top 10 most innovative economies in Africa, a new report shows.

In its Global Innovations Index (GII), the World Intellectual Property Organisation has ranked Malawi on position 107 this year from 111 out of 132 economies.

GII is an annual publication which measures an economy’s innovative capacity and output by focusing on human capital, technology and creative output and market and business sophistication.

The report titled ‘Tracking Innovation Through the Covid-19 Crisis’ shows that Malawi is efficient in terms of innovation input and performance.

The report has touted Malawi as an economy performing above expectations for its level of development.

Other countries in the group are Rwanda, Madagascar, Tanzania, Kenya, South Africa, Tunisia and Morocco.

Reads the report: “Sub-Saharan Africa economies such as Malawi, Madagascar, Ethiopia and Guinea are efficiently transforming their limited innovation inputs and resources into innovation outputs.

“However, there are also several high-income economies that struggle to obtain a better balance between their level of investments and their level of innovation results to the detriment of their overall innovation performance and GII ranking.”

Commenting on the ranking, Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences associate professor of economics Betchani Tchereni commended the country’s direction on innovation, saying it will have a positive social impact.

He said Malawi is advancing on innovation, adding this is a key driver of economic development.

Said Tchereni: “Innovations are what move an economy into industrialisation. In this case, with more and more innovations which can then be commercialised and be turned into tangible products on the market, we can become a true industrialisation force.

“It is this industrialisation which can change the tide of things into more employment and less dependence on imports.”

Malawi was ranked 105 on institutions and 122 on human capital and research.

The country was also ranked 127 on infrastructure, 81 on market sophistication, 95 on business sophistication, 84 on knowledge and technology and 97 on creative outputs, according to the report..

Globally, Switzerland ranks first while Angola anchors the table at position 132.