Ethiopia’s R&D spending accounts for only 0.27% of GDP – Study   

Ethiopia’s expenditure on research and development only accounts for 0.27 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), a government study said on Wednesday.

The new study, by the Ethiopian Institute of Technology and Innovation, said about 65 percent of the country’s research and development spending is made by the government, while the rest is from non-government actors.

Also on Wednesday, the Ethiopian Ministry of Innovation and Technology said the percentage of R&D spending in the GDP has been falling due to an increase in the country’s overall GDP number and a shift from research to practical activities by universities and other research centers.

African countries, under the African Union (AU) leadership, had previously committed to raising their national gross expenditure on research and development to at least 1 per cent of their GDP, so as to promote innovation, productivity and economic growth.

According to the Institute for Statistics (UIS) of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, “only three sub-Saharan African countries are close to this target.”

Research and development by the three countries, South Africa, Kenya and Senegal, stood at about 0.8 per cent of their GDP, the UIS said.

Source: GNA