Technological Catch-Up, Innovation, and Productivity Analysis of National Innovation Systems in Developing Countries in Africa 2010–2018

This study investigates the levels and determinants of regional innovation catch-up, frontier shift, and productivity growth of African national innovation systems from 2010 to 2018. The study relied on the World Development Indicators data for 28 African countries. Non-radial non-oriented Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and bootstrapped truncated regression were the central estimation methodologies. The results revealed that 18% of Africa’s national innovation systems had experienced progress in the catch-up and frontier shift indexes. Further results showed that 21% had experienced total factor productivity growth. Nigeria and South Africa were on the region’s efficient frontier and had achieved the most technological advancement. In addition, Ghana and Senegal had the most productive national innovation systems. The results suggested that national innovation systems in Africa had experienced marginal progress. Further results indicate that the population growth rate and GDP per capita are the critical determinants of African national innovation systems, efficiency, technical efficiency, and productivity performance. Consequently, the implications of the results to policy are twofold. First, African countries should use benchmarking practices with the region’s best-performing national innovation systems. Lastly, African countries have the potential to grow their economies through regional collaborative Science, Technology, and Innovation practices.