Intellectual resource: Cornerstone of Kenya’s post covid 19 economic recovery plan

A top priority for the Kenyan government similar to all countries is developing a pragmatic post covid-19 economic recovery plan. This I assume will entail mapping all resources that the country has from Human resource, Tax revenue, Debt facilities, natural resources and intellectual resources among others.

Cognizant of the precarious position that Kenya finds itself in terms of being highly leveraged, it reduces its headroom for offering any significant rescue plan to SMEs and private sector generally. The most optimal approach henceforth would be to apply the lever or fulcrum principle which multiplies the effort exerted by the user. This means that government must focus on economic recovery initiatives that have the highest multiplier effect on the economy.

An area that has perennially been sub optimally exploited is intellectual resources which has the potential to foster development and reduce poverty noting that intellectual resources constitute a rising share of the income of developed economies derived from their presence in foreign markets.

Kenya’s intellectual resources has on several occasions shown its potential example abound. Most recent being development of ventilators by university students, various hands-free washing devices both in response to the Covid pandemic. Other examples are Kenya consistently ranking top in innovation (Number three in Africa according to Global Innovation Index 2019), Kenya scooping over 17% of funding coming into Africa going to innovative startups; Twiga, Sendy, Mkopa and Cellulant among others (Partech 2018).

The fulcrum effect is clearly demonstrated by Twiga which supports 17,000 farmers and 8,000 vendors most of which are micro small wholesale and retail businesses similar to Sendy that supports over 10,000 riders on its platform. Both these companies have some form of intellectual property that underpins their competitive advantage hence earns the country export revenue through their presence in foreign markets.

Intellectual resource unlike natural resource is unlimited and can used by multiple persons at scale without diminishing the resource. The only caveat that impedes the full exploitation of intellectual resource is barriers in place that prevents competitors from free access to the unique resource or knowledge.

Kenya needs to tap in on innovation by establishing a conducive environment for innovation to thrive. The first port of call would be to enact a bill on Startups similar to Tunisia and Senegal focusing on giving special recognition to innovative startups, providing special incentives such as tax incentives, intellectual property support, access to finance through options such as guarantee scheme, tax incentives to startup investors and establishment of  special economic innovation zones similar to Konza City.