NAME: AJIBOLA SAMUEL OLUWOLE

ADDRESS: 21 OLORUNSOGO STREET, BASIRI, ADO EKITI

AGE: 28
TELEPHONE (WHATSAPP) NUMBER: 08034678485
NAME OF SCHOOL: UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN
LEVEL OF STUDY: PHD
COURSE OF STUDY: ENGLISH (LANGUAGE)
 INNOVATIONS AS A PATHWAY TO ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT IN EKITI
“Innovation is the central issue in economic prosperity” – Michael Porter

“Exploration is the engine that drives innovation. Innovation drives economic growth. So let’s all

go exploring” – Edith Widder

Innovation refers to a new idea, creative thoughts, and new imaginations in form of device or

method. According to Kanter, innovation includes original invention and creative use and defines

innovation as a generation, admission and realization of new ideas, products, services and

processes. A classic example of innovation is the development of steam engine technology in the

18th century. Steam engines could be put to use in factories, enabling mass production, and they

revolutionised transport with the railways. More recently, information technology transformed

the way companies produce and sell their goods and services, while opening up new markets and

new business models.

Economic development, on the other hand, according to Wikipedia, is the process by which the

economic well-being and quality of life of a nation, region or local community are improved. As

Britannica puts it, economic development is the process by which simple, low-income national

economies are transformed into modern industrial economies. Finally, as written on

sciencedirect.com, economic development is a process of structural transformation with

continuous technological innovation and industrial upgrading, which increase labour

productivity, and accompanied improvements in infrastructure and institution, which reduce

transaction costs.
Ekiti is a South-western state in Nigeria, reputable for her educational gigantism. This is as

evidenced by the slogan of the state – “Fountain of knowledge”. The state, which is known to

have produced the highest number of Professors in the country, is also known for Agricultural

engagements and practices, which includes Crop Farming – Yam and Plantain Plantations are

quite are widespread across the state. Ekiti State was created in the Year 1996, precisely October

1st, a long time after many other states have been created. The year of creation seems to have

made the state a younger sibling to many other states in the country, in terms of developments,

Infrastructural, Economic, Educational and so on.

Successive governments have made several attempts at achieving a level of development in the

State before the expiration of their tenures. Many of the previous governments have embarked on

projects which are tailored towards developing the state in every respect. It is however important

to say that irrespective of how good someone might have become, there is always a room for

improvement and no matter how terrible, there is always a room for improvement. Ekiti started

attracting investors in the last four years and the internally generated revenue of the state, as

opined by the Ministry of Finance, is not worth the while. Considering the monthly allocation of

the state, one can boldly say that Ekiti receives one of the lowest. There are sparse sources of

revenue generation in the state. In view of this, one cannot confidently say that Ekiti is at her

best in terms of her economy, though there is a level of progress made, year in, year out. There

are quite a number of ways to improve the Economy of Ekiti State, however, this essay is written

to address innovation as a pathway to economic development in Ekiti .

Most competitive and dynamic economies thrive on Innovation and entrepreneurship. In other

words, innovation is beneficial to economic growth. In other to experience a higher and better

economic performance, it is expedient increase new knowledge and technological progress. In

the words of Joseph Schumpeter (1883-1950), industries must incessantly revolutionize the

economic structure from within, that is innovate with better or more effective processes and

products, as well as market distribution, such as the connection from the craft shop to factory.

Innovation activities tend to take some time before its impact on growth is felt. It is pertinent to

say that efforts to enhance economic development must deliberately seek for ways to promote

application of knowledge factor in economic activities.

Consider the electrification of factories. So long as factories depended on steam as their primary

power source, the organization and layout of activities on the factory floor had to be determined

by proximity to a single power source: the steam engine. Each machine on the factory floor, in

turn, drew upon this power source through a clumsy and extremely wasteful transmission system

of leather belts and pulleys. The introduction of electricity, with separate electric motors attached

to each machine, allowed the layout of work to be organized in a far more flexible and efficient

way, depending on the sequence of activities required by the needs of the production process

rather than by the location of the steam engine. The parallels with the introduction of the

computer are obvious. But it is also relevant to point out that economic historians have recently

devoted a great deal of attention to the electrification of American factories. The consensus of

their studies is that it took about 40 years – from the 1880s to the 1920s – before the application

of electric power produced a measurable increase in factory productivity. And one could also

make a plausible argument that the interface between people and computers is a far more

complex one than the interface between people and electric power.

The question the pops up: “what is the role of innovation in the economic development of Ekiti

State?”
With respect to the tourism sector, what appears to be called for is an intimate familiarity with

consumer needs and preferences in particular specialised markets, and a speedy and imaginative

approach to how these needs might be catered to in a more efficient, but also a more attractive

and more user-friendly manner. There are a number of tourist centres in Ekiti State. For instance,

the Ikogosi Warm Spring, the Arinta Water falls, the Ero Dam and so on. Even the big rocks that

surround the state are tourist centres. The tourism centres could be improved upon and packaged

to the taste of foreign tourists, who would only be able to access the centre after the payment of a

stipulated amount. Ikogosi Warm spring could be repackaged and revamped in such a way that

international observers would be interested in having a look before they bid the world bye.

Ekiti hardly has any resort and relaxation centres. Most of the times, people visit hotels for their

leisure. Most of these people only see the hotels as alternatives to what they exactly desire. This

means that if there are relaxation centres they could visit, they probably would have been willing

to visit such and spend their cash there. There are hardly any cinema houses. The ones available

are just improvised cinema houses. There are quite a number of people who cross the borders to

visit Shoprite in Akure, Ondo State, on a daily basis, just so that they can have a good time in

Filmhouse Cinema. This has a great deal of effect on the economy of the state. If measures like

this are put in place by the Ekiti State government, it definitely would create an unforgettable

effect on the economy.

It behoves the incumbent government of Ekiti state to consider every shade of technological

innovations if there is going to be any serious economic development. This is because

technology drives economic growth. An instance of this is the use of Information and

Communication Technology to generate revenue, particularly, the internet.

Information Technology, and the Internet and World Wide Web in particular, have the capacity

to transform the role of travel agents, and doubtless sharply reduce the size of the travel agent

industry. Any household with access to the Internet – and therefore access to Google – now has

immediate access to detailed information about almost any conceivable location on the earth’s

surface as a possible candidate for a visit.

Needless to say, ticketing for bus travel and motorcycle transport can also be arranged on the

Internet, which also provides invaluable information about the various prices of bus and motor

cycle tickets. In fact, an American research company (Forrester) has recently calculated that

travel is now the largest on-line business in the world. The Internet is obviously transforming the

tourism business in many ways, and easy access to information is growing rapidly in each of the

separate components of the industry, and making it increasingly competitive. The ultimate

uncertainty is figuring out new ways of rendering the tourist industry at least minimally

profitable.

In terms of Agriculture, there are several innovations to brought up in Ekiti State. Ekiti, blessed

as she is, is a fertile land for Agricultural innovations; blessed with a wide range of crops and

people who know how to utilize the crops. Moringa, for instance, is known to cure up to 200

diseases. Moringa could be taken up by the state Government and processed into different things

like air cream, body cream, oil, and so on. If this is considered, quite a number of persons would

reckon with it and it will in turn, generate more revenue for the state.

Thus, for economic development to take place in Ekiti, recourse has to be taken to innovative

ideas and activities cum engagements.