Innovation In Africa Research Articles

The internationalization of African fintech firms: marketing strategies for successful intra-Africa expansion

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore how African fintech firms adapt their marketing strategies for successful market expansion into new African countries.Design/methodology/approachThis exploratory study is qualitative in nature and utilizes semi-structured interviews at 14 African fintech firms.FindingsThe study reveals that, during intra-Africa expansion, firms adapt their marketing strategies by working with local people, prioritizing customer education, creating personal relationships with customers, adapting their communication strategies and pricing strategies and using social media. The strategies that have been most effective involve including the community in the marketing process, prioritizing relationships, segmenting customers geographically, educating customers about products, using local distribution partners and having a flexible approach to strategy adaptation.Practical implicationsIt has been argued that technological innovation in Africa in areas such as financial services is a critical driver of its future development, because of the opportunity it presents to promote financial inclusion. Through an increase in venture capital investment on the continent, technological innovations in financial services have grown exponentially, and this study contributes to the understanding of the marketing strategies employed to gain market traction.Originality/valueThis study proposes that African fintech firms adopt a bottom-up, value proposition-driven marketing strategy to successfully navigate the environment. The proposed framework provides a lens through which to understand the components of successful strategy adaptation in Africa, against the backdrop of the unique market challenges inherent in this emerging market continent.

Services financiers : quelles perspectives pour le déploiement d’innovations agricoles en Afrique ?

Cet article propose une synthèse et une analyse critique des services de financement formels utilisés en Afrique pour le déploiement d’innovations agricoles. Une revue documentaire suivie d’une analyse de contenu ont été menées. Après une présentation et une discussion de différents mécanismes de crédit, l’étude recommande des mécanismes à court, moyen et long termes adaptés au financement de différentes innovations agricoles en tenant compte de leurs spécificités. Il ressort de l’étude que l’intervention de l’État sous certaines conditions, l’association du crédit au conseil agricole et à des mécanismes d’assurance, la collaboration entre les banques et les institutions de microfinance sont autant d’actions qui pourraient faciliter le déploiement et accroître l’efficacité des innovations agricoles en Afrique.

Influence in Technological Innovation Spaces: A Network Science Approach to Understand Innovation for Sustainability in the Global South

The number of scholars working on transition concepts in the Global South is rapidly increasing. In this context, a substantial amount of research output particularly focusses on niches and how they affect transition towards sustainability in a wider framework of the multi-level-perspective. At the same time, there is a growing interest in digital technology and its effect on sustainability challenges. In this article, we combine the two fields, and by utilizing social media data, we create an innovative network science approach to analyze the production environment of digital innovations in Africa. We focus on three innovation hubs that we conceptualize as niches and innovation intermediaries that not only create communities to develop, test and implement new technology but also function as networks to discuss and form new ideas around innovations. Our key findings show how local communities are embedded in larger innovation structures. The connections between local stakeholders and global actors are predominantly created through bridge actors, who hold key positions in their communities. With tools from network science, we demonstrate that these linking elements can regulate and steer discussions and therefore, strongly influence digital niche environments. Utilizing geographical location data, we can also see that the online space of technological innovations in Africa is heavily cantered in urban areas.

Agricultural research, technology and innovation in Africa: Issues and options

This article deals with the challenges of harnessing agricultural research, technology and innovation in Africa. In particular, it focuses on the ways in which development assistance could adapt to improve impact. A historical review of evolving research methods illustrates the way in which increasing interest in innovation has reframed the research approach. This form of research practice is increasingly being referred to as research for development. While the contours of this approach are still emerging, this paper outlines key practices and principles and suggests how these could be implemented. This styalized view of future practice is then used to discuss the implications of this for the role of different actors in the research, innovation and development assistance landscape. Concluding observations include the lament that despite the large diversity in the types of projects and research practice, there is little consensus on what works and what does not. This lack of systematic efforts to critically assess the performance of different approaches hampers learning and capacity building and holds back more effective deployment of agricultural science technology and innovation in the continent.

Political stability and innovation in Africa

Political stability and innovation in Africa

Technological Innovation in Africa: Financial Institutions Development vs Financial Markets Development

Technological Innovation in Africa: Financial Institutions Development vs Financial Markets Development

Interview with Prof. Collet Dandara: A Pioneer and Advocate of Multiomics Science and Health Innovation in Africa.

Interview with Prof. Collet Dandara: A Pioneer and Advocate of Multiomics Science and Health Innovation in Africa.

The Determinants of Firm’s Innovation in Africa

Based on the data obtained from the World Bank’s enterprise survey for 9988 firms from 28 African countries, this study investigates the effect of firm characteristic, openness, and resource-based determinants of innovation. The investigation conducted on the overall sample firms and subgroups formed based on sector, size, and age. The result obtained from the baseline estimation and subgroup analysis commonly shows that firm size, openness (export intensity, competition, and foreign ownership), and resource-based determinants (access to credit, R&D, employees’ training, and gender of a top manager) mainly affects the firm’s probability to innovate. Our separate analysis of the subgroups of sampled firms provides the following additional interesting results. First, the effect of competition from the informal market decrease with the increase in firm size and become insignificant for large firms. Second, the proportion of firms have access to finance increase with firm size, but its effect on innovation decrease in the increase in firm size. Third, large firms invest more in R&D, but efficiency in the use of R&D expenditure tends for smaller firms than larger ones. Four, human capital is mostly relevant for young firms’ likelihood to innovate. The results obtained from the subgroup analysis provide evidence that the effect of firm characteristics, openness, and resource-based determinants varied across the subgroups of firms. This study emphasizes the relevance of considering endogeneity and firm’s heterogeneities in investigating the determinants of innovation.

Digital Payments: Impact Factors and Mass Adoption in Sub-Saharan Africa

This study explores impact factors that affect the adoption of digital payment systems in sub-Saharan Africa. In this article, we investigate the impact factors that subject-matter experts consider most important to the success of FinTech payment models. The data and their responses are evaluated through the lens of Christensen’s market-creation theory, which contends that the adoption of market-creating innovations by a mass swathe of heretofore non-consumers “pulls” framework conditions into place, including missing infrastructure and enabling regulation. Then, we compare the findings with the literature and three case studies of mobile money adoption in Kenya, South Africa, and Nigeria. This study addresses a gap in the literature regarding the payment and money transfer segment of FinTech innovations in Africa using a multiple case study methodology. We drew together information from multiple sources, including semi-structured interviews, archival data in the form of industry and regulatory reports, and observational field notes. Our findings suggest that enabling environments (Kenya) do jumpstart adoption and difficult frameworks (Nigeria) do evolve. This study will help FinTech innovators, academics, and policymakers to understand how technology and framework conditions impact payment business models in Africa.

A re‐evaluation of the framework for the protection of patents, women’s health in Nigeria and the issue of accessing pharmaceutical innovation in Africa: Designing strategies for medicines

AbstractThe objective of this study is to make a case for Nigerian women to have access essential medicines in light of patent protection of pharmaceuticals. Consequently, this study argues for an improvement of women's access to medicines within the context of patent law and rights, the available flexibilities in the international IP regime of the Trade Related Aspect of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement and Nigeria's national patent system. Towards this goal, the article makes the point that patent law and its exclusive rights, both the TRIPS Agreement and national law of Nigeria, do not exist in a social welfare vacuum. The legal text of patent law, which confers rights on inventors when enforced, translates to many other things outside the sphere of property rights; indeed, it can be a matter of life and death. It is argued in this regard that patent right could, in effect, interfere with access to medicines and therefore, the right to health and prospects for human development. This study adopts a doctrinal methodology to examine, analyse, and evaluate the issues that have arisen in the context of patent protection of pharmaceuticals and its effect on access medicines. It concludes that while the hindrances to accessibility of essential drugs in Nigeria are multifaceted and demand a multidimensional approach for a lasting solution, the TRIPS flexibilities are significant means for addressing the challenges of affordable access to important health treatments within the context of patent law. However, it is emphasised that utilising the flexibilities will require that Nigeria's patent system is strategically designed to take full advantage of the available exceptions, safeguards, and options.

The finance of innovation in Africa

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how firms in developing countries finance innovation. Notably, the study seeks to investigate whether innovative firms exhibit financing patterns different from those of non-innovative ones. It also examines the effect of financing sources on firm’s probability to innovate. Design/methodology/approach The study utilizes firm-level data from the World Bank Enterprise Survey. From 28 African countries, 11,173 firms have been included in the sample. A statistical t-test is used for two independent samples and logistic regression models. Findings The results show that innovative firms, specifically innovative small- and medium-size firms exhibit financing patterns different from non-innovative peers. Further analysis indicates that there is no statistically significant difference between the financing patterns of innovative and non-innovative large firms. In Africa, innovation is mostly financed using internal sources and bank finance. Equity finance and bank finance have shown a higher effect followed by internal finance, finance from non-bank financial institutions and trade credit finance on firms’ probability to innovate. Practical implications The management of innovative firms should reduce dependency on short-term and retained earning financing and increase the use of long-term instruments improve innovation performance. Social implications A pending policy task for African leaders is to design and evaluate reforms to create a strong financial sector that willing to support the innovation process. Originality/value This study contributes to the existent literature on finance of innovation by examining how firms finance innovation activities in developing countries. This study provides evidence on how innovative firms exhibit financing patterns different from non-innovative ones from developing countries.

Technological Innovations in the Control of International Exchange: Lessons for Africa

AbstractEmpirical studies on international trade highlight the role of innovation on international exchange but do not capture the effect of technological innovation when unobservable common factors (UCFs) are considered. This paper examines the long‐run relationship between technological innovation and international exchange using panel data for eight African countries over the period 1981–2013. The non‐stationarity and cointegration between technological innovation, international exchange, public investment, real gross domestic income and foreign direct investment were examined, controlling for cross‐sectional dependence and heterogeneity between countries. The results suggest that technological innovation in Africa remains low after controlling for UCFs, while public investment, real gross domestic product and foreign direct investment have significant impact on international exchange. Moreover, the results from the homogeneous and heterogeneous estimates, with and without UCFs, show that ignoring UCFs is likely to bias the coefficients. These findings reveal that African countries should invest more in public infrastructures and research and development to upgrade their capability To play an active role in the international market.

Natural resource endowment and firm-level innovation in Africa: Evidence from cross-country analysis

This paper investigates the impact of a country’s natural resource endowment on the innovation propensity of firms in Africa. It was expected that firms in resource-rich countries have less incentive to innovate than firms in resource-poor countries due to the destructive effects of large resource rents on supportive institutions and political order. The data used for the empirical analysis were obtained from the World Bank’s enterprise surveys global development indicators and the African Economic Outlook reports. The hierarchical nature of the analysis called for a multilevel mixed effect modelling strategy. Results suggest that firms in resource-rich countries are not necessarily less innovative than firms in resource-poor countries. High natural resource endowment appeared to reduce firm-level innovation only if associated with poor institutional and technological capabilities. The innovativeness of firms in resource-rich sub-Saharan Africa countries was found to be lower than that of firms in North African countries. The negative effect of poor institutional quality appeared to be dampened among firms with better innovation capabilities. The findings imply that building effective institutional environments and enhancing firm-level innovative efforts would help mitigate the ‘resource curse’ which, in turn, is dictated by the resulting types of political settlements in resource-rich African countries.

Learning through connecting: data management as a basis for meaningful use of legacy data -The African Archaeology Archive Cologne

For more than 50 years the African Archaeology at the University of Cologne has conducted field research in various parts of Africa, particularly in the Eastern Sahara and in Namibia. The focus was on environmental history and on rock art, with internationally renowned research schemes like ACACIA (Arid Climate Adaptation and Cultural Innovation in Africa) and ‘Rock Paintings of the Upper Brandberg'. Much of it was published in close co-operation with the Heinrich-Barth-Institut, including six voluminous catalogues of rock art and 26 monographs on African archaeology. Most of the materials accumulated in the research projects are not digital in origin and are now digitized and made accessible in the digital online archive AAArC (African Archaeology Archive Cologne). Besides being a repository for tens of thousands of pictures, also whole documentations of excavation are made accessible here. Digitising the repositories of Cologne's African Archaeology within the AAArC project started in 2012, using the DAI (German Archaeological Institute) data-interfaces Arachne, DAI-Gazetteer and DAI-Zenon. Today AAArC opens web access to thousands of fieldwork documentations, pictures and tracings of rock art. Open access interoperability of metadata integrated to picture formats is achieved. Exploiting database management systems of highly varied structure in a digital repository is achieved through collaboration with IANUS (Research Data Centre Archaeology & Ancient Studies), a national long-term preservation digital archive for archaeological data. AAArC offers participation in digital heritage content management, thus perpetuating the long lasting cooperation of Cologne's African Archaeology with a number of African countries. The AAArC online archive aspires to make the full range of archaeological documentations accessible online and not just pictures. Thus AAArC ultimately enables a digital homecoming of complex research data to their countries of origin.

Opportunities and challenges for entrepreneurial innovations in africa on the example of the Republic of Benin

Opportunities and challenges for entrepreneurial innovations in africa on the example of the Republic of Benin

Health emergency operation centers implementation challenges in Africa.

The African continent faced to many public health events. An effective organization is the key element for managing public health events. Health Emergency Operations Centers (HEOC) are strategic bodies that can help control such situations. We would like to share our experience about the HEOC implementation in Senegal, which is among the first in Africa while highlighting the challenges we have the HEOC concept is quite common in other continents, it is an innovation in Africa. And yet, Africa is the most affected by emergency situations and disasters and very few of its country possess HEOC. Consequently, emergency and disaster management interventions are done in a nonsystematic manner. The comprehension of the concept, the mission and organization need to be well understood for setting up a HEOC the added value of HEOC is great for African country to face public health events.

Migration, Innovation, and Growth: An African Story?

This chapter brings new evidence on innovation in Africa and its relationship with short-term labour mobility. Using data from 34 African countries over the period 2011-2016 sourced from the World Bank's Enterprise Survey, we find that more than half of African firms have innovated in new product or process in the 3 years before the survey. Such high proportion may run counter to common perceptions of Africa as a region where innovation is lacklustre. The most innovative African countries are mainly located in East Africa, highlighting the dynamism of this area. Innovation there is typically about process, suggesting the existence of established productive units serving the region's market. The least innovative countries, which are characterised by innovation in products or services for local consumption, tend to be small in population and geographic size, except for one. The results also support the hypothesis that short–term labour mobility matters for innovation, making this a potentially effective channel for economic development alongside better-known activities such as investments in R&D, foreign direct investments, and trade. Short-term labour mobility thus emerges in Africa, too, as a prospective policy lever to generate new productive knowledge and promote sustainable economic growth.

Digital payments in Africa - how demand, technology, and regulation disrupt digital payment systems

The purpose of this study is to better understand the impact factors behind the adoption of digital payment systems in Africa. The FinTech environment is changing rapidly and requires constant review of the ecosystem of financial technology innovations to keep abreast of the innovations. This study addresses a gap in the literature regarding the payment and money transfer segment of FinTech innovations in Africa using a multiple case study methodology from Kenya, South Africa, and Nigeria. We pulled information from multiple sources, including semi-structured interviews, archival data in the form of industry and regulatory reports, and observational field notes. The results highlight how regulatory innovation (Kenya) better enables the success of new technologies and their concomitant behavioural change than bank-led (South Africa) and pre-emptive (Nigeria) regulatory styles. This study will help FinTech innovators, academics, and policymakers to understand how technology and framework conditions impact payment business models in Africa.

Innovation and employment in manufacturing and service firms in Ghana

While the importance of innovation as a primary source of economic growth has never been in dispute, its impact on employment has remained indeterminate. On one hand, the pessimists indicate that firm innovation destroys jobs because of the immediate indirect labour-saving nature of the effect of innovation, while the optimists argue that there are several compensation mechanisms that are known to counterbalance the initial effect of innovation and render the final effect indeterminate. Using data on a panel of 421 firms in Ghana, the paper investigates the relationship between innovation introduced at the firm level and employment. Relying on the panel fixed effects and Hausman-Taylor estimation techniques, this study finds a robust statistically significant positive impact of product innovation on employment but not for process innovation. In terms of policy relevance, this finding reemphasizes the need for policy makers in Ghana to intensity efforts in promoting technology diffusion particularly through FDI. This study thus contributes to the literature on innovation in Africa by providing evidence on why technological innovation in the form of product innovation can be a panacea to alleviating employment challenges in Ghana.

Corruption, transaction costs, and innovation in Africa

This paper examines the relationship between corruption, transaction costs as measured by asset specificity, and innovation in Africa. We hypothesize that in the context of developing countries in Africa, corruption is positively associated with innovation. In addition, we hypothesize that this relationship is mediated by physical asset specificity and human asset specificity. These hypotheses are tested by means of a multiple mediation model. The product of coefficients approach and bootstrapping techniques are used to estimate firm-level data from the 2013 World Bank Enterprise Survey and 2013 Innovation Follow-up Survey. The results from the estimations reveal that corruption is positively associated with innovation, and that physical asset specificity mediates this relationship. There is no evidence suggesting that human asset specificity mediates the relationship between corruption and innovation. We conclude that the positive relationship between corruption and innovation offers support to the hypothesis that corruption ‘greases-the-wheels’ of innovation in Africa. Furthermore, physical asset specificity increases the likelihood of innovation in a business environment characterized by a high degree of corruption.