SADC markets should embrace innovation to remain competitive
Lazarus Sauti
Ian Bessarabia, head of business development for
Sub-Saharan Africa at the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial
Telecommunication (SWIFT), says there has been significant growth in Africa’s
capital markets over the past decade, but there is still a long way to go
before markets reach their full potential and Africans benefit fully from this
growth.
This calls for improved technology so that markets can
support growth and remain competitive with global peers.
To grow, scale and globalise and make the transition to
networked, technology-driven economies, as well as to remain competitive, adds
Bessarabia, Southern African Development Community (SADC) markets should,
therefore, embrace innovation.
“Innovation is key to economic success, and for SADC
markets to remain competitive, business leaders should embrace and continue to grip
innovation as a key driver for socio-economic growth,” noted Bessarabia.
Harare based research and development analyst, Masimba
Mavhudzi, concurs, saying SADC markets should embrace innovation to reconfigure
economies as well as create new markets and opportunities that southern Africa can capitalise on.
“Innovation is a key driver for national and regional socio-economic
prosperity. It enhances sustainability and helps markets to produce new
products and services that suit different niche or virgin markets. If regional
markets are to prosper, they must be innovative enough,” he said.
Speaking at a Zimbabwe
New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) in-Country Training for the
Africa Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators (ASTII) Survey Programme in
Harare recently, Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and
Technology Development Oppah Muchinguri also said innovation is significant to socio-economic
progress, and regional markets should seriously embrace it to regenerate, empower
grassroot people for economic transformation as well as to remain competitive.
“The
role of innovation as an enabler for economic development cannot be
over-emphasised, and if we want to transform our regional markets, we need to
embrace innovation. The transformation must also be matched by the availing of
both monetary and infrastructure resources,” she said.
Professor Gary Atkinson-Hope, an innovation specialist,
also said there is evidence based consensus on the critical
role of innovation as the key driver of social and economic development, and the only way markets in Southern Africa will grow is
by adopting new ways of operating.
“Markets in Southern Africa must not be wedged in the groove
of delivering second-rate products. To change and deliver the kind of
first-world products necessarily suitable for the regional market, and to
remain highly competitive, they must drive further growth through innovation,”
he added.
Atkinson-Hope added: “Innovation opens up markets that
have been closed or did not previously exist. It is, thus, a powerful engine
for development and for addressing social and global challenges, and it should
be centrally located in SADC’s long term economic growth strategy.”
Ade Bajomo of the Nigerian Stock Exchange is also of the
view point that innovation is critical not only as a game changer, but because
it fundamentally changes the way business is done and brings competitive
advantage against peers.
He, therefore, urges SADC markets to innovate so as to
remain relevant, competitive as well as to become indicators of
the progress southern Africa is making towards improving the quality of life of
her citizens.
However, Mavhudzi said since innovation is part and
parcel of research and development, SADC governments must invest heavily on
science, technology and innovation. He said they can do this via creating
strategies and policies that enhances economic development.
“The ability to create policies that enhances economic
expansion is innovation. It is from those policies that regional markets get the
critical aspect of hands on. Solid, fast looking plans, strategies
or policies are therefore required to strengthen SADC’s markets,” Mavhudzi
said.
Significantly,
Mavhudzi urged regional markets must copy from other countries such as
Malaysia, Indonesia and China in building up strategic plans and policies if they are to effectively
develop competitive regional markets.
“Countries such as Japan, South Korea, Malaysia,
Indonesia and China embraced innovation to solve their problems and develop
their markets. Accordingly, SADC markets should use these countries as
platforms if they are to successfully embrace innovation and remain
competitive,” he noted.
Professor
Luke Mumba – Africa Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators programme
coordinator at NEPAD, agrees, adding that it is also the mandate of government
sectors to craft policies that promote research and development.
He
also said governments sectors should target to spend more than 1.5 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on
research and development.
Sadly,
most, if not all, member states have not moved much towards the implementation
of the one percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) commitment to research and
development.
SADC
markets, though developing, are still faced with many challenges in both the
economic and social domain. These problems, however, require innovative
solutions, and if regional markets embrace innovation, they will not only solve
various challenges, but develop their niche markets, remain competitive and
help southern Africa to achieve her development goals.
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