Categories: Stories

Zimbabwe among the 10 least innovative countries in Africa and the world

Zimbabwe has been ranked 129 out of the 139 most innovative countries in 2025, according to the Global Innovation Index.

It only ranks higher than Niger at 139, Angola(138), Congo(137), Mali (135), Ethiopia (134), Guinea (133),Lesotho (132) and Mauritania (131).

Mauritius is the highest ranked African country at 53 followed by South Africa (61), Seychelles (75), Tunisia (76) and Egypt (86).

Rwanda at 104 is the highest ranked low income country followed by Togo at 117 and Madagascar at 120.

Low income countries have a per capita income of $1 135 or less.

Zimbabwe is a lower middle income country which covers those with per capita incomes of between $1 136 and $4 495.

It plans to graduate to an upper middle income country by 2030. Currently upper middle income countries have per capita incomes of between $4 496 and $13 935.

Those above this are high income countries.

According to the World Bank there are 25 low income countries, 50 lower middle income countries, 54 upper middle income countries and 87 high income countries.  

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Charles Rukuni

The Insider is a political and business bulletin about Zimbabwe, edited by Charles Rukuni. Founded in 1990, it was a printed 12-page subscription only newsletter until 2003 when Zimbabwe's hyper-inflation made it impossible to continue printing.

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