Nigeria’s 114th position in 2019 GI Index puts incoming minister under pressure
For whoever that will emerge as Minister of Communications after the ongoing Senate screening, a huge assignment awaits him or her on how best to drive the ministry to bridge the yawning gap between Nigeria and the rest of the world in both creation and utilisation of technology innovations.
This is based on the revelations of the latest 2019 Global Innovation Index released this week which revealed that upon all the efforts so far made by the ministry and former ministers, Nigeria is among the low-middle income countries that are underperforming as far as creation and utilisation of innovations are concerned.
Though the new report showed that Nigeria moved up four places to 114 out of 129 economies ranked in the 2019 GII from the 118th position it attained in 2018, industry analysts argue that Nigeria is supposed to be on the high speed lane so as to further move up to a better international status.
According to the report, economies like South Africa, Kenya and Mauritius have remained the top three economies in terms of innovation in sub-Saharan African
Whereas countries like Kenya, Rwanda, Mozambique, Malawi and Madagascar recorded progress in terms of innovation relative to their level of development, Nigeria failed to be among continental innovation achievers within the period under review meaning that much is desired of the incoming minister.
Otherwise, the report made it clear that Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy performed below expectations when compared with the level of economic development in the country.
Business Hilights gathered that just as Ghana, Zambia, El Salvador, Bolivia, and Nicaragua were on the same page of underperformers with Nigeria, the yearly GI Index measures innovation performance in countries globally.
