Entrepreneurship and innovation in Nigerian universities: Trends, challenges and opportunities.

In a bid to improve entrepreneurial outcomes of graduates from Nigerian universities, the Nigerian government has launched a range of interventions, including a 2004 national policy mandating compulsory inclusion of entrepreneurship education in the curriculum, and support for the establishment and implementation of entrepreneurship development activities by university departments. However, not much is known about the operational nuances, challenges and impact cases that characterise the implementation of this national policy in such a vast, culturally diverse country as Nigeria. To address this lacuna, this study draws on qualitative data from five focus groups, crystalised with quantitative data from 151 students across four Nigerian Universities, to explicate the current trends, successes, and challenges of entrepreneurship development and innovation support in Nigerian universities. The paper offers recommendations on how the current policy on entrepreneurship education in Nigeria can be enhanced to improve student entrepreneurial aspirations and outcomes. It also signposts innovative pedagogic activities which could be deployed to achieve this.

Factors Affecting COVID-19 Testing Behaviours Among the Population in South Western Nigeria.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to assess the factors affecting testing behaviours amongst the population in Ondo and Lagos States. Methods: A cross-sectional study involving 704 individuals who were considered eligible for COVID-19 testing in 4 local governments in Lagos (307) and Ondo (397) states in Nigeria, was conducted from April-June 2021. Respondents were selected using simple random sampling. A close-ended questionnaire was administered using a digital survey platform known as SurveyCTO. Data were analyzed using R 4.1.0. Results: In Lagos state, 52.4% were females, 47.2% were males while in Ondo, 55.2% were females, 44.6% were male. Chi-square tests of association revealed that socio demographic factors significantly associated with testing patterns was education level in Lagos, and none in Ondo. Testing behavior associated with testing patterns included awareness of nearby COVID-19 testing centers, internet access, knowledge of preexisting conditions and having another member of the family testing positive at 5% significance level. Conclusion: Knowledge of pre-existing conditions, knowledge of COVID-19 symptoms, and knowing where to go when having symptoms were significantly associated with testing and willingness to test.

Improving Data Integrity in Public Health: A Case Study of an Outbreak Management System in Nigeria.

The completeness and accuracy of data in the Nigerian health care system is a challenge. Studies have shown that the data quality, and by extension data integrity, has been suboptimal and thus poses a barrier to strengthening service delivery. This article showcases how the design process sparked the concept for an intervention to improve the integrity of public health data being collected in Nigeria.In collaboration with the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) and Lifebank, the Co-creation Hub team conducted formative research with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) test center managers at NIMR. The insights informed the development of the features for an outbreak management system. These features were refined through an iterative process of development and continuous feedback from the end users.NIMR reported an improvement in its data collection process and data integrity. They reported that (1) almost all data collection by the test center was now automated, thereby minimizing the proportion of inaccurate and repeat entry in comparison to data collected in other parts of the same center; (2) the auto-validation feature of the system ensured that all required fields of a patient's information were completed and verified, thereby ensuring 100% data completeness; and (3) the validation and verification feature ensured that patients' contact information was validated.The integration of this intervention into the current health information system ensures an improvement in the accuracy and validity of health care data being collected and stored.

The use of DIY (Do it yourself) sampling and telemonitoring model for COVID-19 qPCR testing scale up.

The first case of COVID-19 in Nigeria was recorded on February 27, 2020, being an imported case by an Italian expatriate, to the country. Since then, there has been steady increase in the number of cases. However, the number of cases in Nigeria is low in comparison to cases reported by other countries with similar large populations, despite the poor health system prevailing in the country. This has been mainly attributed to the low testing capacity in Nigeria among other factors. Therefore, there is a need for innovative ways to increase the number of persons testing for COVID-19. The aim of the study was to pilot a nasopharyngeal swab self-sample collection model that would help increase COVID-19 testing while ensuring minimal person-to-person contact being experienced at the testing center. 216 participants took part in this study which was carried out at the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research between June and July 2020. Amongst the 216 participants, 174 tested negatives for both self-collected samples and samples collected by Professionals, 30 tested positive for both arms, with discrepancies occurring in 6 samples where the self-collected samples were positive while the ones collected by the professionals were negative. The same occurred in another set of 6 samples with the self-collected samples being negative and the professional-collected sample coming out positive, with a sensitivity of 83.3% and a specificity of 96.7%. The results of the interrater analysis are Kappa = 0.800 (95% CI, 0.690 to 0.910) which implies an outstanding agreement between the two COVID-19 sampling methods. Furthermore, since p< 0.001 Kappa (k) coefficient is statistically different from zero, our findings have shown that self-collected samples can be reliable in the diagnosis of COVID-19.