Thriving Morocco has clearly grasped its opportunities

Last week, I attended the Africa Innovation Foundation (AIF) Awards ceremony at Skhirat, Rabat, Morocco.

Pre-ceremony events were held at the Mohammed IV Convention and Exhibition Centre, purpose-built for such events.  It lies 25 kilometres outside of Rabat and 70 kilometres away from Casablanca, which means it is slightly further than Konza is from Nairobi. 

Before I delve into innovation, some brief general points about Morocco.  It is one among only three countries, Spain and France being the others, that enjoy beaches in both the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.  And, as you perhaps guessed, tourism is big here.

The number of tourists visiting Morocco has gone up from seven million in 2007 to more than 10 million in 2014.  During the same period, Kenya’s international tourist arrivals dropped from a high of 1.6 million in 2007 to less than one million in 2014.

With a population of 35 million and a per capita income approaching $4,000, Morocco is doing well.  Its economy is growing at an average rate of five per cent and inflation is at below three per cent, spectacular performance by any standards.

Although agriculture has always been the backbone of the economy, manufacturing surpassed agriculture in 2012 as the top contributor to Morocco’s economy.  This was largely due to increasing value-addition to agriculture.  Mining comes in third, followed by tourism. 

The country is the world’s largest producer of phosphates (used in fertiliser making, water-based paints, coating, ceramic industries and in many other applications) besides being one of the top agricultural producers in the Arab world.

PROXIMITY TO FRANCE

According to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), Morocco is the leading producer of marine products in Africa.  It exports about 60 per cent of its fish to Europe and about 20 per cent to the rest of African.  It is aggressively developing its textile industry, targeting the US market.

By comparison, in Kenya, with its expansive coastline where tuna (a global multi-billion dollar business) come to spawn between January and July, fish exports do not even register in our economic data.  Yet fish features highly in the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA), the US law that accords preferential treatment to select African exports to America. 

The little revenue we get from fish is largely peanuts from licensing Asian nations to trawl our coastline and deplete our fish resources. Asian countries are feeding themselves and earning good money from our fish.

Turning to innovation, Morocco is spending money on research and development, hoping to become a regional technology hub. 

Its proximity to France and the fact that French is widely spoken in Morocco has made it possible to grow the ICT sector, especially in business process outsourcing.  Given the country’s service to the French, it is true to say that Morocco is France’s back office in many aspects.

Morocco’s innovation credentials are among the best in Africa.  Two finalists at the AIF awards are Moroccans.  South Africa had four finalists and Kenya two.  The remaining two were from Ghana and Burundi.

READ: Kenyan innovators shortlisted for prize

A Moroccan professor, Adnane Remmal, emerged the winner, followed by a Kenyan, Alex Muiru.  A South African professor, Lesley Erica Scott, won the social impact category.

Muiru has been a serial entrepreneur and has spent a great deal of time working on the online marketing industry, both as an entrepreneur and as a professional in various adverting agencies. 

IMPROVING LIVESTOCK HEALTH

His innovation is a risk-sharing funding agribusiness model that draws in investors for a share of farming profits.  His company, Capital Africa, identifies, screens, and shortlists full-time farmers with small-holdings, helping them devise farming plans to attract potential investors who earn profits over time.

Another Kenyan, Kyai Mullei, was a finalist with his innovation, M-changa, a mobile application that empowers individuals and organizations to initiate and manage fundraisers through SMS or web devices in an efficient, cost effective manner. 

The platform aggregates all mobile money services, as well as banks, to easily raise funds for a cause. So far the platform has helped people raise more than Sh22 million.  It is an innovation that effectively digitises the Kenyan ‘Harambee’ philanthropy, making it convenient to raise funds from far and wide.

Professor Remmal, a Biotechnology professor at Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdallah University, won the overall prize of $100,000 for his innovation in alternative livestock antibiotics composed of natural phenolic molecules with anti-microbial (anti-bacteria, anti-parasitic, anti-fungal) properties that can either be added to livestock feed or drinking water. 

The natural, innovative, formula reduces health hazards to cattle and humans, preventing the transmission of multi-resistant germs and possible carcinogens through meat, eggs and milk to humans at no extra cost to farmers.

SOUTH AFRICA'S SUCCESS

Prof Scott teaches at the University of Witwatersrand’s Department of Molecular Medicine and Haematology. She won a prize of $25,000 for the social impact of her innovation on a TBcheck tool that examines the accuracy of machines used to diagnose Tuberculosis (TB).

TBcheck is designed to assess whether these machines are functioning optimally, reducing instances of inaccurate diagnosis. Unlike the other products, TBcheck is easy to use, and can be delivered to laboratories economically.

I have followed the South African tech community for some time now.  They have done well in research and innovation, and there are many secrets to these sterling performances.  But you must allow me to contextualise South African innovation.

The first thing to say is that it is hardly inclusive. Majority of the innovators are white, with many of them boasting great tertiary-level education from the country’s many great universities and other institutions of higher learning. 

In contrast, Kenya is unfortunately destroying its tertiary education through uncontrolled expansion, underfunding research, insisting on old curricula, impeding inter-disciplinarity and condoning mismanagement.

Labs have outdated equipment, and teachers are demoralised. Yet it is known that Germany’s success is largely due to an educational system that equips the majority of her people with skills. 

ZUMA HAS FAILED

Perhaps the one leader who appears to get it is the new head of South Africa’s Democratic Alliance, Mmusi Maimane.  He is the first African leader I have listened to who appears to have a great grasp of the issues confronting his country.

Maimane says Jacob Zuma has failed, and my South African friends concur.  The African National Congress (ANC) is fuelling xenophobia to cover their inadequacies in dealing with the real issues that afflict their people. 

A South African confidant tells me that ANC, as well as the police and the Army, are quietly supporting these criminal activities by the youths as a strategy to slow down Julius Malema of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).  These are all old African political manoeuvres we have seen many times. 

That Jacob Zuma has not apologised to African countries for such heinous acts speaks volumes about this ungrateful leader who was himself an exile during the difficult times of Apartheid.

Further, Maimane says education in South Africa needs fixing.  The policy of quantity over quality, he says, is what is disenfranchising Africans.  White people maintained quality education that is often affordable to only a few black people. 

This state of affairs is virtually the same across Africa, with the consequence that today, 90 per cent of all research in Africa is done by white South Africans.  In essence we are sleeping on our jobs. 

Research is one of the critical components for sustained innovation that brought us to Morocco.  A previous year’s AIF winner, Joshua Okello from Uganda, told me that it has taken him longer to move his product to market because Africa does not have specialised engineers to refine his product.  He needs lots of money to get one or two from Silicon Valley.

700 CASABLANCA COMPANIES

Perhaps Morocco may lead Africa because it is doing great in terms of creating an entrepreneurial revolution of its kind.  Visiting their Konza in Casablanca, you marvel at what they have achieved. 

They have a great model, actually a public-private partnership where the government gave out the land and the initial buildings for a 35 per cent stake.  The rest of the investors are banks and venture capitalists.

Since their start in 2001, they have matured 700 companies.  A sister technopark in Rabat has also graduated 50 companies.  Presently, they have 230 companies under incubation, averaging over 50 start-ups every year for the last five or so years. 

The parks so far employ 1,500 salaried employees.  Majority of the employees are below 30.  Turnover from the Casablanca Technopark stands at 800 million Dhirams ($100 million).

Thinking about the prospects for innovation in Africa reminds me of one of Winston Churchill’s admonitions that “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

Incremental success of Kenyans will one day lead to national success. The secret is that we must keep trying and never be discouraged by intermittent failures. Fear of failure is the greatest enemy of success.

The writer is an Associate Professor at University of Nairobi’s Business School