OP- ED: On African Innovation - The Importance of Relevance (Part 1)

Map of innovation hubs across Africa. Source: VC4Africa 

If necessity is the mother of invention, then Africa, with its acute necessities should be the motherland of innovation. But this is clearly not the case, at least not as far as innovation is globally defined.

As someone who is passionate about Africa and passionate about innovation, I find myself always seeking to find out about African Innovation. Interestingly, there has been a lot of talk about that in recent times. Organizations like NEPAD the UN and British Council,  High profile publishers like Africa Business, All Africa and Forbes and high profile events, like the World Economic Forum, recently held in Abuja, have given a lot of airtime to Africa and how its development is linked to innovation, and how the creative industries are key to innovation and so on.

Innovation success stories like M-PESA (Great stuff, by the way)  have been frequently touted as examples of how Africa is innovating, and various articles on innovation have documented the  new trend of Africa - innovation hubs springing up across Africa (As of today  there are over ninety tech hubs in Africa.)

CC-Hub in Nigeria is one that I have had the opportunity to interact with on various levels and I can say that something new, fresh and innovative is definitely happening in the African space, particularly within the ICT sector.

It is at this point that I begin to get uncomfortable.