An innovation policy researcher, Dr Abel Shagu, has urged Nigerian researchers to embrace frugal innovation, alternative funding and partnerships to move ideas from laboratories to markets.
Shagu said this during an interview with reporters in Abuja on Tuesday.
He said researchers could overcome persistent commercialisation barriers by developing affordable prototypes suited to local conditions.
He told reporters they could achieve this while also exploring fintech-driven funding mechanisms, including crowdfunding, to reduce dependence on traditional financing channels.
He said cross-border partnerships with development organisations such as the European Union, USAID and GIZ could provide Nigerian innovators with technical support, international exposure and access to wider markets.
The researcher also advised innovators to leverage innovation hubs and incubation centres where they could access mentors, investors, industry players and other networks needed to transform research outputs into viable products and services.
According to him, researchers should increasingly align their innovations with the needs of the nation’s informal sector and its rapidly expanding digital economy.
“Researchers can navigate today’s barriers through creative funding and partnerships, but future innovators will only thrive if Nigeria commits to consistent policy and serious investment in R&D (Research and Development),” he said.
Shagu, however, said individual efforts would not be sufficient to transform Nigeria’s innovation ecosystem, stressing that government needed to establish a predictable and coordinated policy environment.
He identified increased funding for research and development as one of the most urgent reforms, noting that Nigeria’s R&D investment of about 0.13 per cent of GDP remained far below the African Union’s benchmark.
He also advocated a National Research and Innovation Council to harmonise fragmented policies, coordinate stakeholders and provide strategic direction for the more than 250 innovation hubs operating across the country.
Shagu said stronger public-private partnerships were necessary to ensure that research priorities reflected industry requirements, adding that closer collaboration could help reduce the persistent gap between academic discoveries and commercial applications.
“Nigeria must also improve critical infrastructure supporting innovation, including laboratories, information and communication technology facilities and reliable electricity, because weak infrastructure often prevents promising research from advancing beyond prototype stages,” he said.
He further recommended the integration of robust monitoring and evaluation mechanisms into research and innovation programmes to track outcomes, strengthen accountability and determine whether public investments were producing measurable economic and social benefits.
Shagu said a combination of predictable financing, infrastructure, policy coordination and stronger academia-industry relationships would create an environment where Nigerian researchers could develop solutions capable of addressing local challenges and competing internationally.
He stressed that innovation policy should therefore move beyond supporting ideas and focus increasingly on creating pathways through which research could generate enterprises, employment, productivity gains and sustainable economic development.
The researcher said Nigeria possessed considerable research and innovation capacity, but unlocking its full potential would require government, academia, industry and development partners to work within a coordinated framework.
Shagu added that sustained investment and policy consistency would ultimately determine whether promising innovations remained confined to research institutions or became commercially successful solutions capable of contributing meaningfully to national development.
