Africa’s biggest economy, Nigeria, has been ranked 114th in the 2019 Global Innovation Ranking. This is revealed in the latest edition of the Global Innovation Index (GII) just released.
It has also been revealed that Nigeria is among the countries that performed largely below development expectations. Basically, the Global Innovation Ranking took into consideration business sophistication, human capital research, infrastructure, market sophistication, creative output, and institutions.
Nigeria’s ranking: Specifically, there are six income categories in the ranking. They include high-income countries, high and upper middle income, other upper-middle-income, lower-middle-income, and low-income countries.
- Across all the indicators, the low-middle-income countries where Nigeria belongs ranks 5th out of all the six regions.
- For the institutional categories that include political, regulatory and business environments, Nigeria ranks 114th.
- Under business sophistication (knowledge workers, innovation and knowledge absorption), Nigeria ranks 85th in the world.
- Infrastructure (122nd)
- Human capital (119th)
- Market Sophistication (88th)
- Creative output (101st)
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The low-middle-income countries: Among the lower-middle-income countries that fall short of expectation in terms of the level of innovation development, Nigeria ranks 22nd, just above Bangladesh, Nicaragua, and Zambia of the total 26 countries. This means the country completely performed below expectations.
- Georgia, India, and Kenya all top the charts of lower-middle-income countries that performed above the expectation of the level of development.
- On the other hand, under the Innovation Input Sub-Index ranking, Nigeria ranks 116th, just behind Tanzania.
- On the other hand, under the innovation Output Sub-Index ranking, Nigeria ranks 105th, just behind Honduras and above Cameroon.
Top 10 global ranking: Below are the top ten countries that make up the Global Innovation Ranking.
- Switzerland remains the world’s leader in innovation in 2019. It improves its rank in three innovation input pillars which include market sophistication, business sophistication and notably, infrastructure.
- Sweden recovers its 2nd position worldwide this year (up from 3rd). It ranks among the top 10 economies in all pillars, except for market sophistication where it loses two positions.
- The U.S reaches the 3rd position worldwide, in part, due to performance increase and the availability of new U.S. innovation data.
- The Netherlands is the 4th most innovative economy in the world. It ranks 11th in the Innovation Input Sub-Index and retains 2nd position in the Innovation Output Sub-Index.
- The United Kingdom improves its rank in two pillars: Knowledge and technology outputs and market sophistication.
- Finland moves up to 6th position this year, continuing its upward trend from 2017. It ranks 7th in both the Innovation Input and Output Sub-Indices.
- Denmark ranks 7th, increasing by one rank from last year. It increases by two spots in the Innovation Input Sub-Index (5th), and by one spot in the Innovation Output Sub-Index (12th).
- Singapore ranks 8th this year. It remains first in the world in the Innovation Input Sub-Index and keeps its 15th position in the Innovation Output Sub-Index.
- Germany retains 9th place for the third consecutive year. It improves to 12th position in the Innovation Input Sub-Index (up by 5 positions) and ranks 9th in the Innovation Output Sub-Index.
- Israel breaks into the top 10 of the most innovative economies in the world for the first time, after several years of increased performance. It remains 1st in the Northern Africa and Western Asia region and keeps its position in the top 10 worldwide in Business sophistication and Knowledge and technology outputs.
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