Despite the orchestrated effort to portray Nigeria as the best investment destination in Africa, the Global Innovation Index report released in Sydney, Australia on Friday has placed the country in the 110th position out of the 143 countries polled.
Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Sweden topped this year’s Global Innovation Index in annual rankings published by Cornell University, INSEAD and the World Intellectual Property Organization.
No African country made the first 39 spot in the ranking while Mauritius, which tops the African countries in the ranking, came a distant 40th position, followed by South Africa at 53 and Tunisa at the 78th position.
Sudan, on the other hand, took the rear at 143 while Togo and Guinea ranked 142nd and 139th respectively.
The GII 2014 surveys 143 economies around the world, using 81 indicators–to gauge both their innovation capabilities and measurable results.
Amid a newly documented slowdown in the growth of global research and development, the theme of the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2014 is “The Human Factor in Innovation,” exploring the role of human capital in the innovation process and underlining the growing interest that firms and governments have shown in identifying and energizing creative individuals and teams.
For this year’s GII launch, Australia’s Minister for Industry Ian Macfarlane joined authors of the report and its partners in Sydney at a gathering of international business leaders (known as B20) which is part of Australia’s preparations to host the annual Group of Twenty (G20) Leaders Summit on November 15-16, 2014.
Launching the GII in the run-up to the G20 hosted by the Australian Government and as its first launch in the Asia-Pacific region reflects the uniqueness of the GII as tool for measuring and improving innovation performance,” said Francis Gurry, Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
He added: “It recognizes the centrality of innovation for a job-rich, strong, sustainable and balanced growth path – as envisioned by the G20 leadership.”
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