Nairobi is Africa’s most innovative city, report shows

Cape Town in South Africa, and Kampala, Uganda, make up the top 3

Nairobi was ranked first in Africa for innovation in the newly published Knight Frank Africa Horizons report.

Cape Town came in second, Kampala third, and Cairo and Johannesburg in fourth and fifth position, respectively.

The ability of African cities to recover from the pandemic will be determined by their ability to innovate, provide long-term social solutions to their citizens, attract funding, and generate new demand for space, according to the report.

To arrive at a specific innovation ranking, the study examined over 100 data points applied to 29 capital cities from a long list of over 500 cities in Africa. The three components examined where innovation activity was focused, such as the total number of startups, the amount of innovation funding, and innovation infrastructure, such as the number of research institutions, with Nairobi emerging as the top performer.

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‘Innovation, combined with economic development, will push the next decade of investment in Africa,’ says Tilda Mwai, a Knight Frank Africa researcher. Cities with above-average innovation scores and a strong economy would likely attract lower-risk investors.