Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Studies ISSN (print): 2644-0490, ISSN (online): 2644-0504 Volume 4 Issue 07 July 2021 Article DOI: 10.47191/jefms/v4-i7-03, Impact Factor: 6.228 Page No. 904-911 JEFMS, Volume 4 Issue 07 July 2021 www.ijefm.co.in Page 904 Evaluating Innovations in Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in Bayelsa State Agada, Franklin A 1 , Dumani, Markjackson 2 , Duke, Ebikela S. 3 , Oguru, Foster A. 4 1,2,3,4 Federal Polytechnics Ekowe, Bayelsa State, Nigeria ABSTRACT: Innovation in its modern meaning is "a new idea, creative thoughts, new imaginations in form of device or method". Innovation is often also viewed as the application of better solutions that meet new requirements, unarticulated needs, or existing market needs. Such innovation takes place through the provision of more effective products, processes, services, technologies. The aim of the paper is to give the view on innovation activities in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) sector in Bayelsa state. The paper is divided into two parts. Firstly, the paper is to evaluate situation in innovation activities conducted by small and medium enterprises in Bayelsa state, identifying the main barriers to develop innovation activities, formulate some recommendations on how to overcome these barriers. The second part of the paper is to present the importance of innovativeness, which is viewed as one of the prerequisites for successful innovation activities. Main findings revolve around the facts that product innovations are predominant in SMEs in Bayelsa state and that there is a significant impact of these on growth of firms‟ turnover, profitability and employment generation. And recommended that Prospective entrepreneurs given the resource constraints and weak/unstructured National Innovation Systems (NIS) that characterize developing economies, it makes sense to assume that SMEs therein would focus on incremental innovations and that these would have some positive impact on firm performance and students of entrepreneurship education should be exposed to different innovative schemes, Bayelsa state government should support small and medium enterprises innovation through grants and aid. KEYWORDS: SMEs; Innovations; Innovation activities; Trend; Bayelsa; Nigeria. 1. INTRODUCTION Innovation in its modern meaning is "a new idea, creative thoughts, new imaginations in form of device or method"( Merriam- Webster) Innovation is often also viewed as the application of better solutions that meet new requirements, unarticulated needs, or existing market needs (Maranville, 1992). Such innovation takes place through the provision of more effective products, processes, services, technologies, or business models that are made available to markets, governments and society. An innovation is something original and more effective and, as a consequence, new, that "breaks into" the market or society (Frankelius, 2009). The importance of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) to national economies has been widely recognized. Indeed, there is now a worldwide interest in motivating entrepreneurship and nurturing the growth of small businesses through several mechanisms, topmost among which is the provision of risk-free capital (Oyefuga et al, 2008). The general argument is that by their very nature, SMEs are highly innovative and extremely impactful as far as national economic development is concerned. To date, several informative studies have explored the subject of innovation in SMEs but existing gaps in the knowledge about innovation among SMEs beg for more studies. Specifically, studies that explore the types of innovation that SMEs pursue are few and mostly based in the developed country context (e.g. Oke et al, 2004; Rizoni, 1991). Main findings revolve around the facts that product innovations are predominant in SMEs and that there is a significant impact of these on growth of firm’s turnover. The results on whether or not these firms focus on incremental/radical innovations are inconclusive and other dimensions of firm performance apart from turnover have been largely unexplored (see for instance, Oke et al, 2004; Kanter, 1985). Bayelsa state is blessed with numerous natural resources and produces over 30% of the Nigeria internally generated revenue. However, it is characterized by a poor state of social infrastructure. Such infrastructure which includes electricity, effective communication system, good roads, good drinking water, etc. are to be made available for SMEs to thrive (Balogun, 2004). Another factor which hinders entrepreneurship in Bayelsa State is the lack of will-power on the part of the state and local government to