The future of any nation is not built overnight; it is cultivated in classrooms, strengthened through innovation and realised in the marketplace.
Omo Aregbeyen, professor of Economics at the University of Ibadan, buttressed this ideology when he emphasised that innovation, research and entrepreneurship are the critical pillars for achieving sustainable development in Nigeria and across Africa.
Aregbeyen highlighted that in a knowledge economy, the most valuable asset is not what people have in their head, hence it is wrong for Nigeria to merely rely on its mineral resources without investing in human capital development.
“Though, Nigeria’s wealth comes from oil, land, labour as resource economy, the most valuable asset is not what you have in the ground, but what you have in your head,” he said.
To maximise the knowledge economy, Nigeria has opportunities in areas such as its young digital-native population, mobile penetration, which is above 90 percent, and a large internal market.
