Obstacles to Innovation in an Emerging Economy: A Case Study of Nigeria

Abstract

Innovation can be seen as a crucial factor in achieving economic growth and development and panacea for various problems in emerging economies. But emerging economies are faced with certain obstacles to achieve innovation capability over time. This study was conducted to investigate the obstacles of innovation in Nigeria as an emerging economy. Nigeria is blessed with an abundance of natural and human resources: Natural resources such as oil and gas deposits, various solid minerals, gold, verse agricultural land etc.; Human resources, Nigeria have the highest population in Africa with the largest labor force in Africa, and is operating freemarket economy. Therefore, despite all these advantages Nigeria possesses, it’s still not innovative economy. This brought about the main research question as why the Nigerian economy not innovative in nature? The study finds answers to this question such as underdeveloped domestic systems of education and science, weakness in indigenous technological capabilities, consumer purchasing power and consumer demand for innovative products, structural imbalance of the economy and poor public sector management. Eventually the researcher came-up with a conclusion and some implications on how government of Nigeria has to overcome those obstacles overtime to achieve innovation capability.