Ben Ezechime, Enugu
The Obi of Onitsha, Chief Nnaemeka Achebe, has said that the South-East region of Nigeria remained the power house and mainstay of the Macro, Small and Medium Enterprises in the country.
Achebe said this during the ongoing 3-day South-East Business and Investment Summit (SEBIS 2024) in Enugu, with the theme: “Remaking South-East as Economic Powerhouse.”
The summit is being organised by the South-East Chambers of Commerce Industries Mines and Agriculture (SECCIMA), in collaboration with SEBIS.
“The South-East is the power house of MSMEs in Nigeria, especially in areas of Agriculture, manufacturing and textiles amongst others,” the monarch said.
He called on monetary institutions in Nigeria and international financial institutions to leverage on the outcome of the summit to train and grow the youth population in the zone.
“This is the only way to fight and end insecurity in the South-East,” he said.
Achebe, who was the chairman of the occasion urged the South East business community to come together and form a common front for the greater good of the zone.
The President of SECCIMA, Mr Humphrey Ngonadi, said the summit was coming at a time when the region needed synergy by all stakeholders to re-jig the economy of the South-East.
He said that the South-East economy was the most viable in the country before the advent of the civil war but lamented that the war brought the zone backward economically.
He commended SEBIS for the theme of the summit, adding that, it was time the zone reclaimed its position as the leading light of the Nigerian economy.
Speaking, the Executive Secretary of SEBIS, Dr Ifedi Okpenna, said that the summit was a follow up to the 2023 South-East summit on Security and Economy organised by the South-East Governor’s Forum.
He said that the summit was an annual reunion meeting of government/policy leaders, investors and businesses from diverse sectors to promote business and investments.
“It is primed to bring together businessmen and women, investors and promote Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflow, Capital repatriation and remmittancies into the South-East Nigeria,” he said.
