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  • 9 November, 2023
  • South Africa
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Home / Resources / Enhancing South Africa’s Emerging Digital Technologies’ Innovation Ecosystem

Enhancing South Africa’s Emerging Digital Technologies’ Innovation Ecosystem

About the policy brief

South Africa is ranked the top innovating mainland country on the African continent in the 2022 Global Innovation Index (GII) (WIPO, 2023) It has the second highest level of funding towards research and development on the continent (currently at 62% behind Kenya at 69% of GDP) (World Bank, 2022) with over 50% of the R&D funds coming from the government as opposed to foreign actors as in many other African countries. The private sector contributes around 23% of R&D spend (DSI, 2023).

This policy brief outlines the results of a study into the status of the EDT innovation ecosystem in South Africa. It is part of a comparative study reviewing the status of the EDT innovation ecosystems in South Africa and Kenya. The policy brief findings are of value to those working in the EDT innovation ecosystem, especially those providing policy support in the areas of education, regulation and finance.

About the University of Johannesburg

The University of Johannesburg is one of of the largest contact universities in South Africa (SA) from the 26 public universities that make up the higher education system. It has a student population of over 50 000, of which more than 3000 are international students from 80 countries.