To support innovation for development, governments need to fast-track the establishment of venture capital to fund innovation and provide tax credits for investments in research and development. This one of the recommendations from a paper recently published by The Scinnovent Centre.
In a new study, the Scinnovent Centre sought to interrogate the challenges facing innovators in Kenya with a view to making recommendations to the various actors within the national innovation system on the various kinds of support required to ensure Kenyan innovators meet their full potential. Targeted at exhibiting innovators during the Annual Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Conference and National Science Week held on 19 to 23 May 2014 at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) the survey was conducted to capture their views on a range of issues including intellectual property rights; financing; market access; receptivity of the market to local innovation; policy support; role of the private sector and role of universities and other training instituÂtions.
The paper further recommends the need for government to (ii) spearhead preferential purchasing of locally manufactured products through its procurement policies (iii) entrench technology and business incubation centres in all the technical training facilities and (iv) enhance awareness, sensitization, and support for intellectual property rights protection.
Download the paper here: stuck on the road to the market_ why Kenya suffers from stunted innovations
The Scinnovent Centre 