Ben Ezechime, Enugu
The South-East Chambers of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (SECCIMA), has signed a mutual agreement with South-East Business and Investment Summit (SEBIS), for smooth organisation of the South-East Business Summit scheduled from December 11 -13 in Enugu.
Speaking during the occasion, President of the SECCIMA, Dr Humphrey Ngonadi, described the event as timely and very important in the effort to place the South-East economy where it belongs.
He lamented that the South-East had not taken their rightful position in Nigeria’s economic growth, saying that there was a huge missing gap.
“People in the South-East do a lot of prayers; we spent most of our time in the Church.
“God can only use us to do things and where we refuse to do the things we need to do, it remains undone.
“That is why we are here to do the things we need to do in order to advance the economy of the South-East region,” he said.
Ngonadi added that the coming together of like-minds for the upcoming summit was a laudable vision which is capable of lifting the economy of the people to greater heights and repositioning it for the greater good of the people of South-East.
“It is something very nice such that, if we buy this vision, God will use this to do great things for us in the South-East,” he said.
Also speaking, the Executive Secretary of SEBIS, Dr Ifedi Okpenna, said that the summit would be an opportunity to remake South-East as an economic hub in Nigeria, hence the theme: “Remaking South-East as Economic Powerhouse.”
“We have decided to embark on this selfless service to restore the South-East to its glory days.
“One thing with South-Easterners, is that, anything we put our minds on, we will succeed.
“The only way we can move forward is to have a South-East economy, we need to have a bigger economy in order to move the region forward,” he said.
Okpenna said that the South-East region was a bigger economy before the Nigeria civil war, but regretted that after the war, policies of the Nigerian government crippled the region’s economy.
He, however, said that the South-East could only return to its original position if it comes together and forge a common front.
“Individually we cannot stand; so, there is the need for us to come together and move as a zone for greater economic growth.
“Let’s come together; play the politics together and partner together,” he said.
A representative of one of the sponsors of the summit, Enyimba Economic City, in Aba, Abia State, Mr Ikedy Isiguzo, said the company decided to partner in the summit in support of efforts to re-jig the South-East economy.
The Director General of SECCIMA, Dr Daniel Ochi, said the MoU was another milestone in actualisation of the upcoming summit which is aimed at repositioning the economy of the South-East region.
The highlight of the event was the signing of the MoU by SECCIMA and SEBIS.
