Journal of Scientometric Res. 2021; 10(3):423-436 http://www.jscires.org Research Article Journal of Scientometric Research, Vol 10, Issue 3, Sep-Dec 2021 423 Utilizing Federalism, Science and Technology for Economically Viable United States of Africa Copyright © The Author(s). 2021 This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. Olawale Rafu Olaopa Department of Economics, College of Business Administration, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, SAUDI ARABIA. ABSTRACT Colonialism brought about an unviable federal system of government where it is practiced in many African states, which impacts directly on socio-economic development of the continent. African states are a byproduct of the Industrial Revolution in Europe; thus, its political formations were fashioned according to the interest of the metropoles as well as the neo-colonial elites at the expense of the poor local indigenes. As a result of these, the continent is characterized by policy failures; authoritarianism; inappropriate state structures and other vices. Consequently, this paper intends to provide answers to: why has development challenges persistent in Africa when the continent prides itself with differently endowed resources and series of development strategies adopted; how can Africa be salvaged from this development quandary and policy failures; and what roles can Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) play, in this circumstance, to excuse the continent from these doldrums? The paper embraces qualitative and historical research methodology and adopts content analysis of secondary sources of data. This method involves the in-depth review of literature and scientific papers on the subject matter, and making judgemental inference therefrom. Evidence from the review indicates that real federation and sustainable economic development for global competitiveness can only be achieved through sincerity, trust and political dedication on the part of the leaders, people and respective states. It also requires all stakeholders’ readiness to redirect all the regions’ resources leveraging on effective channelization of indigenous knowledge (IK) towards the development of STI driven by effective policy formulation and implementation. Keywords: Content analysis, Federalism, IKS, Metropole, Neocolonial, STI. Correspondence Olawale Rafu Olaopa Department of Economics, College of Business Administration, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam-31441, SAUDI ARABIA. Email id: orolaopa@iau.edu.sa Received: 05-07-2020 Revised: 07-07-2021 Accepted: 10-11-2021 DOI: 10.5530/jscires.10.3.60 INTRODUCTION Across the world, the various societal challenges that have limited the enjoyment of the dividends of democratic governance and the need and how to safeguard humanity from further dangers portend by hunger and starvation, insecurity, declining and/or insufcient resources, diseconomies of scale, lack of competitiveness have dominated many political, economic and academic fora. Consequently, stakeholders have found reason and solution in the formation of diferent types of groupings at diferent levels of political system. It is against this background that some great African leaders muted the laudable idea on creation of a United States of Africa amidst several impediments to the realisation of this dream. [1] Specifcally, this notion of African unity came up and is predicated on the need to properly focus and direct the attention of the newly independent states towards the critical need to pursue unity and ensure solidarity across the continent. Also, it is an attempt to implement a transformation agenda that will make Africa a place of pride in the global community. No doubt, the continent has witnessed various laudable and commendable institutional transformation and transition, and programmes. Yet, the yearning for a new suitable body which will adequately meet demands of societal dynamics and the dictates of globalisation, as a consequent of the apparent insufciencies of the existing initiatives, has been persistently on the increase. [2] This paper is aware of the fact that a lot of initial issues entail critical consideration. Participating in the debate and thinking on what requires to foster a central and economically competitive unifed government, this paper focuses on two issues: one, to highlight the opportunities and prospects inherent in the principle and practice of federalism to the notion of a United States of Africa, and two, to make proposals based on the critical roles of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) in facilitating the achievement of a viable United States of Africa. That is, what improvements will be required in transforming STI and essential associated governance structure that will facilitate the achievement.