Abstract:
The global economic trends of this century have put the management of knowledge at a level never before seen in
human history. While the scope of known science and engineering fields keep shrinking as a result of emerging new
frontiers that occasion break-a ways and multi-disciplinary interests, knowledge management as a matter of necessity
continues to be on the increase because old knowledge is never thrown away but improved upon to evolve better
products and better ways of achieving set objectives. Most African economies have evolved over several millennia and
it is interesting to note that the various ethnic nationalities in Africa have been able to overcome the challenges of
extinction because of the rich pool of their indigenous knowledge (IK). Indeed, the nations of the continent can emerge
as global players faster if efforts are made to better understand and exploit this knowledge pool. This paper looks at the
opportunities in the rich IK pool of the Nigerian ethnic nationalities, the possibility of evolving the appropriate
intellectual property inherent and proposes a model that will energize the profitable and proper management of IK in
Nigeria.
