Kenya has been ranked the third most innovative country in Sub Saharan Africa according to the Global Innovative Index (GII) 2018.

Kenya follows South Africa and Mauritius who are ranked first and second respectively.

According to the index, Kenya's strengths include access to credit especially microfinance loans, innovation linkages and exports of creative services, workforce efficiency, printing and other media.

"Kenya achieves high levels of innovation relative to its level of development, a continuous performance since 2011," the report states.

Kenya is ranked 78th most innovative country globally, while South Africa is placed 58th.

The Index states that South Africa shows strengths in its sophisticated market and business sector. Other strong indicators are: access to credit, market capitalization, university and industry research collaborations, cluster development and intellectual property payments.

"South Africa is improving in the quality of its science papers and its universities, especially for the University of Cape Town, the University of Witwatersrand and Stellenbosch University," the report reads.

Mauritius has a strong political, business and credit environments.

Switzerland retained its number-one spot in the Global Innovation Index (GII) ranking published annually by Cornell University, INSEAD and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Rounding out the GII 2018 top ten: The Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Singapore, United States of America, Finland, Denmark, Germany and Ireland.

Now in its 11th edition, the GII is a detailed quantitative tool that helps global decision-makers better understand how to stimulate the innovative activity that drives economic and human development. – Capital FM