Borrowed metrics, missed insights: why Africa needs its own STI playbook

Abstract

Africa’s innovation story cannot be told with borrowed metrics. While Africa’s mobile money service M-Pesa reshapes finance, and the network organisation AfriLabs supports innovation hubs and fuels grassroots tech, conventional science, technology and innovation (STI) measures overlook these advances. The real task is developing metrics that reflect Africa’s realities—where local innovation that improves lives matters as much as patents. Effective implementation of continental strategies like the Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa 2034 depends on developing innovation measures and indicators that capture Africa’s unique innovation paradigm.