List of Technology Centers in Africa

2 Aug, 2018

List of Technology Centers in Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most-populous continent. At about 30.3 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area and 20% of its land area. With 1.2 billion people as of 2016, it accounts for about 16% of the world's human population.

A technology center or technology centre is a research center used for technology research.

This is a list of technology centers throughout the Africa :

Algeria : Cyberparc de Sidi Abdellah - Algiers

Cameroon : Silicon Mountain - Most innovative startups in Buea

Egypt : Smart Village Egypt (part of Greater Cairo)

Ghana : Ghana Cyber City - Leading innovation hub of West Africa.

Kenya : Konza Technology City - Business process outsourcing (BPO) ventures, Science park, and other facilities.

Mauritius : Ebene Cyber City

Morocco - Casablanca : Casablanca Technopark, Rabat : Technopolis

South Africa - Silicon Cape, Western Cape and Technopark Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch

Zambia : National Technology Business Centre (NTBC) - Lusaka

Technology Centers with "Silicon" names :

The following list contains places with "Silicon" names, that is, places with nicknames inspired by the Silicon Valley nickname given to part of the San Francisco Bay Area:

Silicon Cape — Cape Town, South Africa

Silicon Lagoon — Lagos, Nigeria

Silicon Mountain — Buea, Cameroon

Silicon Savannah — Nairobi, Kenya

History of science and technology in Africa

Africa has the world's oldest record of human technological achievement: the oldest stone tools in the world have been found in eastern Africa, and later evidence for tool production by our hominin ancestors has been found across Sub-Saharan Africa.

The history of science and technology in Africa since then has, however, received relatively little attention compared to other regions of the world, despite notable African developments in mathematics, metallurgy, architecture, and other fields.

Sub-Saharan African countries spent on average 0.3% of their GDP on S&T (Science and Technology) in 2007. This represents a combined increase from US$1.8bn in 2002 to US$2.8bn in 2007. North African countries spend a comparative 0.4% of GDP on research, an increase from US$2.6bn in 2002 to US$3.3bn in 2007.

Exempting South Africa, the continent has augmented its collective science funding by about 50% in the last decade. Notably outstripping its neighbor states, South Africa spends 0.87% of GDP on science and technology research.

Although technology parks have a long history in the US and Europe, their presence across Africa is still limited, as the continent currently lags behind other regions of the world in terms of funding technological development and innovation. Only six countries (Morocco, Egypt, Senegal, Madagascar, Tunisia and South Africa) have made technology park construction an integral piece of their development goals.