OP- ED: On African Innovation - Can Africa Innovate? (Part 2)

In the first part of this series (If you missed it you can read it here), I tried to make a couple of points:

• If necessity was the mother of invention then Africa was ripe for innovation

• The current discourse and examples of African innovation appears to be skewered towards ICT and may be distracting from the need to innovate in more critical sectors

• Innovation, especially African Innovation, needs not be high-tech.

• If we develop a broad definition of innovation and not rely solely on the silicon valley version of it.

• If we pace ourselves and develop innovations organically, rather than leaping to building a satellite to launch into space. China has grown its innovation from being a  low-cost producer of manufactured goods for the rest of the world and is now seeking  to develop higher value-added products.

These thoughts would be recurring threads in the series, but for now, the question I am trying to answer is Can Africa Innovate? I had given examples of Africans who had innovated in both ICT and non-ICT related sectors,  African’s are innovative, it take a lot of innovation to live in many parts of Africa.  But can Africa innovate in the way and on the scale that globally innovative companies do?

While, researching this Article, I googled my question “Can Africa Innovate?” Scanning through the first thirty results, I couldn’t find one article asking the  question. I began to wonder if the question was moot for many, if  it was unnecessary i.e why even bother asking?

I decided to run a search with the question “Can China Innovate?” Within the first ten results, there where links to articles or reports either asking the same question or variations of it, and other results including “Why China Cant innovate” “Joe Biden Is Wrong- China Does Innovate” and “Chinese Can Innovate But China Cant.”

Would I be wrong if I assumed that no one was asking if Africa could innovate, because no one thought Africa could? I’m still thinking about it, but this is my preliminary answer:  Africans are innovative, thus Africa can innovate: 

We must introduce innovation, critical thinking and intellectual property into our school curriculum; and this does not necessarily need to disrupt the current process significantly. Our schools must move from teaching to learning, the students should be moved from focusing on passing exams to solving problems.

We need to educate Nigerian investors and venture capitalist on investing in innovative companies, it takes a different mindset, and investors in these parts tend to be scared of investing in untested models.

We need engineers. Not just engineers but engineers who understand creativity, design and business innovation - most of the innovative western companies were founded by engineers.

Government needs to play its role in protecting intellectual property and financing innovation hubs directly connected to research institutions and or industries where they are located.

I intend to address each of these issues with more detail in subsequent parts of the series, until then though, I’m putting the question to you: Can Africa Innovate? 

Do share your thoughts with us. Thanks and have a great week.

©Ese Oraka

Image credit: http://blogs-images.forbes.com/matthewdepaula/files/2014/06/8161674482_6afa443513_c.jpg

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Ese Oraka is a Lawyer and Business Designer. He has extensive knowledge and experience in IP and Business Law, Innovation Management and Business Model Design. He is a founding partner at Adelphi Consulting. You can find him on - Twitter: @eseoraka, Facebook: /ese.oraka.9, or email info@adelphionline.com