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Enabling Africa’s promise
Durban, South Africa
The influence of innovation on African countries’ developmental progress continues to be one of the most frequently discussed topics at high-powered meetings like this year’s World Economic Forum Africa.
Many of the discussions on panels or in private conversations with presidents and captains of industry and leaders of social causes often come down to finding new approaches and principles to tackle many of the intractable challenges faced on the continent.
Such new approaches underlie our philosophy in picking people for Quartz’s third edition of the Africa Innovators list. The word innovation is often linked with technology alone, but since our inaugural list our innovators have always been people with “big ideas, creative vision, entrepreneurship and homegrown, globally scalable problem-solving.” This year is no different.
Many wonder about the fate of Africa in 2017 when several of the world’s leading powers, like the US, have turned their focus inward. Yet, we’ve again identified more than 30 Africans who aren’t waiting for help from the outside. The influence of their work goes well beyond their immediate community and will ultimately impact millions of lives. They’re taking leadership and control in a wide range of fields including finance, healthcare, education, agriculture, design and many other fields.
The Quartz Africa team is especially proud of the women and men on the 2017 list; it’s our most widely represented group of innovators yet, picked from 18 countries. As with our 2016 and our inaugural 2015 innovators, it has been inspiring for us to follow the dedication, determination, and creative enterprise of each person here.
We congratulate everyone and recommend that you take time to follow their impressive work. See the complete 2017 list here.
Yinka Adegoke, Quartz Africa editor
Essays & ideas
Better financing will be the solution to innovating Africa’s education. Key stakeholders across Africa agree that educational and digital learning infrastructures needs to be transformed. Econet founder Strive Masiyiwa writes that the answer lies in finding groundbreaking ways to efficiently finance education expenditures.
Decoding the true meaning of technological disruption in Africa. The specter of economic populism haunting Europe and America is partly rooted in how businesses deployed technology in the last few decades. Using examples from Uber and M-Pesa, Harvard’s Calestous Juma argues that such opposition to technology will sweep Africa unless we foster a shared business model based on economic and technological inclusion.
Why funding shouldn’t be used as a rubber stamp for innovation. For entrepreneurs and innovators, funding always acts as a mark of trust from investors, and a way to boost their innovations. Speaking to a number of 2017 Quartz Africa Innovators, Lynsey Chutel finds out why some of them prioritized perspective and purpose over funding for the success of their innovation.
Can the Nigerian who designed the Chevy Volt transform his country’s auto industry? Nigeria recently appointed Jelani Aliyu, the Detroit-based designer of the Chevy Volt, as the director of the National Automotive Design and Development Council. However, Yomi Kazeem finds the car design veteran will have to jump a few hurdles before revitalizing his country’s auto industry.
African electronic game makers are breaking into the global market. Abdi Latif Dahir speaks to game makers on the 2017 Innovators list and learns mobile gaming is opening up the market in Africa. Now, developers are tapping into local myths and daily realities to offer the global market something different.
CHART OF THE Moment
Mobile innovation is the best way to get 2.5 billion people access to basic services. Billions of people around the world don’t have access to banks or micro-financial institutions, but many use mobile money services at a very high rate. Phone companies can counter slowing subscription growth through innovation—and enable access to critical services like healthcare, education, and insurance. It will be helped by the growth of smartphone connections across the continent which almost doubled in the two years to 2016, reaching 226 million.
The innovation archives
Investors in Africa’s tech sector should solve real-world problems, not just digital ones. There has been a significant growth in the deployment of private capital over the last decade and a half in Africa, with tens of billions of dollars raised. Tobi Oke writes that these technological investments and innovation do not reflect the variances in infrastructure and market needs.
How bioscience can transform Africa’s economic development. New opportunities for economic transformation are already being built on Africa’s abundant biological resources. But as Calestous Juma and Sujata Bhatia explain, the emerging bioeconomy has the potential to transform primary production, especially in agriculture, forestry, health, and industry.
How African innovators can protect their intellectual property. After its success in a pilot phase in Kenya, an online intellectual property registration system is now being introduced in 18 African countries. Joshua Masinde reports on how the process could make it easier for enterprising citizens to secure and transform their innovations into marketable assets.
Africa’s next big economic boom will be about marketing digital trust. Nation states can be defined based on their common descent, language or as living in a particular territory. Yet in the age of the internet, Quartz Africa Innovator (2015) Bright Simons challenges us to see countries as portals, connected through a borderless internet—with Africa leading from the front through innovation and sound regulation.
Why innovation, not trade, is the future of Africa’s growth. Over the last few years, Africa has registered a lackluster performance when it comes to global trade. But while these trade opportunities have induced economic diversification and growth in the continent, the solution from poverty and prosperity lies in nurturing market-creating innovations, writes Efosa Ojomo.
Watch: Innovation won’t happen in Africa without building the necessary infrastructure. During the 2015 Quartz Africa Innovators conference, investor Ory Okolloh explained how a fetishization of entrepreneurship and innovation was distracting us from problems that leaders and policymakers should be grappling with. “There is growth in Africa,” she said, “but Africans are not growing.”
Tales of disruption
Clayton Christensen wants to protect you from disruption. Harvard professor and innovation guru Clayton Christensen is the world’s foremost authority on disruptive innovation. In an interview with Oliver Staley, Christensen talks about why people aren’t really interested in products or services in them self, how to account for hard-to-define traits like taste and style, and the backlash against his theory on disruption.
Here’s how the hospital of the future will sound like. The incessant beep of monitors, the whir of automatic doors, and the moaning of patients have all made hospitals an incredibly noisy place. Lauren Brown writes that a diverse group of experts—including musicians, acousticians, researchers, and doctors—have come together to bring the noise down.
The ambitious plan to make India the new center of experimental physics. While India has produced some prominent physicists, its students have had to rely more on theory due to the lack of equipment and facilities in colleges and universities. Sonali Prasad spoke to some of India’s top scientists about the plans to construct a gravitational wave observatory in the country.
Something weird happens to companies when they hit 150 people. At a startup, once the staff exceeds 150 people, employees are no longer the single, cohesive unit they were during the company’s earliest days. This tipping point can be a struggle for founders, writes Quartz editor-in-chief Kevin Delaney, unless they recognize how to manage growth and streamline leadership structures.
Our best wishes for a productive and thought-filled week ahead. Please send any news, comments, suggestions, Nigerian-made electric cars and futuristic African video games to africa@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter at @qzafrica for updates throughout the day.
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