Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Economic Growth Index in an Emerging Economy: Nigeria as a Case Study

Innovation and entrepreneurship are tightly coupled concepts. Innovation involves designing new ways of conceptualizing, developing and producing goods and services which society needs. Entrepreneurship on the other hand is a mindset required to convert innovation into a real business situation, which delivers benefits to stakeholders. This research examined the role of innovation as an index growth analysis of the Nigerian economy and its competitiveness. It was discovered that research and development was relegated to the background due to low spending and patenting which invariably was not concomitant with the rebased GDP of 521,803US$ of the economy in 2014. Findings of the research also indicated that innovation requires not only highly knowledgeable, experienced, and skilled entrepreneurs, but also highly skilled workforce thus; educational policies and capacity building is necessary. Further findings revealed that there are no linkages between the research outcomes of tertiary/research institutions and the industry on one hand and no synergy between the public and private sectors of the economy on the other. The method of research is descriptive and qualitative using secondary data. The research concludes that, although Nigeria benefits from a large market size rated 33rd in the world and a relative efficient labor market ranked 40th driven by its flexibility, there is the need for a synergy between the research findings of tertiary institutions and the industry. Nigeria must therefore engage in technological catch up in order to actualize productivity and encourage domestic innovation. Economic growth requires sustainable and shared increases in per capita income accompanied by changes in the structural composition of an economy towards higher value added goods and more efficient production methods.