The Nigerian National Innovation System: A critical look at research & development (R&D) and innovation capabilities in selected universities

Universities and Research Institutes are key components of the National Innovation System (NIS) responsible for creating economic opportunities and wealth in nations. The capabilities of each component and the strength of their interactions determine the extent of wealth creation, economic development and global competitiveness of individual nations. The Universities and Research Institutes are responsible for generating and imparting new knowledge, and within the domains of Science & Technology (S&T), developing new ideas that can be transformed to the market by Industry. In Nigeria, budgetary allocation to S&T rose from N 1.5 billion (US$ 0.01 billion) in 1998 to N 16 billion (US$ 0.11 billion) in 2006, representing a 730% in 8 years. As impressive as the figures look, they represented only 0.11% of GDP. Furthermore, Nigeria only accounts for 0.01% of global expenditure on R&D, her Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) ranking is 94 (out of 134 nations), and she has no university in the world´s top 500. Nigeria has aspirations to be one of the top 20 world economies by 2020 creating two key issues - a need for massive investment in S&T Research & Development (R&D) over the next decade and strategic opportunities for Researchers in R&D and New Product Development. A critical concern is knowing the capability of the Nigeria university researcher to effectively harness these opportunities and marshal Nigeria´s economic revolution. This study examines R&D capabilities and productivity in Science & Technology (S&T) in selected Nigerian Universities and Research Institutes showing existing interactions among researchers, their linkages with government and industry and factors militating against productive R&D for economic development in the country with the aim of providing critical information for policy.