Driving a working economy, creating new spaces with innovation

Technologies, recently launched their ‘UBER BOATS’ in the city of Lagos, the most populous and fastest growing city on the continent. And this innovation would be tested for two weeks in the city in partnership with the ‘Lagos Waterways Authority’; a successful test could mean a successful launch which will be a solution to the traffic challenge in the city and provide economic empowerment. This is where a phrase’ though now a cliché, comes in and that is “the power of innovation.”

The world-leading economies, over time, have proven the power of innovation and the transformation that comes with it and it’s breathtaking when we visualize the thorough practice of this ‘innovation culture’ and how rooted it is from the foundation of the economy and how they have built upon it and largely capitalized on the benefits.

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In recent times, we have seen the exploding rates of innovation in our country, from transportation solutions, waste solutions and sustainable development. Even in tech and in the arts as well. And all these provided solutions to existing market needs and provided economic empowerment. Some of them have come in small scale and medium enterprises (SMEs) and some of them on a large scale. Even, some of them have been foreign. But we can’t deny how much they have contributed to the growth of the Nigerian economy and also helped Nigerians.

As much as we may have challenges that we are battling with in our economy, we can’t also deny the fact that, even in the very least of ways, the Nigerian economy is growing. The Nigerian economy is a working economy and it needs a driving force, one of which is fundamental and much needed today is the force of innovation. It’s in ‘creating new spaces’ for ideas to thrive and give room for innovations that will further transform the economy. With ‘creating new spaces’, is also engaging conversations that will drive growth which we have seen in the likes of the ‘Nigerian Innovation Summit’, with the 2019 conference dwelling on ‘Accelerating Nigeria’s Economic Growth through Innovation’.

In conclusion, as much as innovation is concerned, it also has to be sustained and that is through a process becoming a culture, the ‘innovation culture’. We can drive the tag ‘Made by Nigerians for Nigerians’.