Availability of natural resources in any country is a great contributor to the wealth base of that country and also aids socio-economic development (Jack, Nkwocha, and Odubo Citation2016). Embedded in the physical environment are natural resources made up of air, water and land. With its abundant natural resources, Nigeria has the wherewithal to be a very rich country. 50 million Nigerians are part of the over 3 billion people in the world living below the poverty level, less than US$1 a clay, with a Human Poverty Index (HPI) of 46.1 (Uchegbu Citation2015). In this section, the natural resources are divided into three categories namely petroleum, agricultural and solid minerals resources.

Nigeria’s oil production level is close to 2 million barrels per day (Aliyu Citation2009). With an estimated natural gas reserve of about 180 trillion cubic feet, Nigeria is the largest natural gas reserve holder in Africa, and one of the largest in the world (Ahmed, Bello, and Idris Citation2012). Figure 2 gives a good summary of the vast oil and gas resources owned by Nigeria. Despite the non-renewability of these resources, they represent a key resource in Nigeria for national development. Though most SMEs cannot harness the potentials in the petroleum raw materials themselves due to its gigantic capital implications, the downstream petrochemicals can become the area of focus for materials-to-product innovations.

The mismanagement of public funds and unnecessary government expenditure over the years have undermined the contributions of increasing oil revenue to sustainable national development (Aregbeyen and Kolawole Citation2015). This has led to numerous calls for the diversification of the economy (Anyaehie and Areji Citation2015) as the non-renewability of petroleum resources makes it an unsuitable foundation for any approach in sustainable development (Uzonwanne Citation2015). Despite the negative effect of fluctuating oil prices on the nation’s economy (Aliyu Citation2009), the availability of petroleum resource and its associated petrochemicals for materials-to-product innovations is one that cannot be ignored. It can thus be inferred that petroleum resources are important for the sustainable development of Nigeria, albeit not for the long-term….(by Adewale George Adeniyi, Joshua O. Ighalo, Comfort Abidemi Adeyanju).