The South-East Business and Investment Summit has called for joint effort and participation from critical stakeholders and investors to tackle socio-economic challenges in the South-East and return the region back to economic power house.
Speaking during a road show/town hall meeting held at the All Saints Cathedral in Onitsha, on Monday, the Executive Secretary/CEO, SEBIS, Dr Ifedi Okwenna, noted that South-East, which used to be a powerful economic force has lost it due to lack of structured and organisational leadership.
Okwenna lamented that before 1978, the South-East region was developing at 9.2 per cent per annum and would have become a great economic powerhouse if the leadership had allowed the trend to continue.
He spoke on the theme of the event, titled, ‘Remaking South-East as economic power house’, saying that the time has come for critical stakeholders in the region to “take the bull by the horns” and rebuild, reenergise and remake the region into economic powerhouse.
He said the summit theme aims to address South-East pressing socioeconomic and infrastructural challenges through a multi-stakeholder dialogue between the public and private sectors.
According to him, similar exercise will be held across the five states in the region. This, he said will be a platform for convergence of minds and markets for sharing insights, forging strategic alliances and setting agenda that will offer fresh perspectives to reimaging the South-East business and investment climate.
He called for stronger partnership between the region and the Federal Government while seeking the reopening of Ikom-Cameroon border for economic activities to thrive.
He said, “We are trying to work as businesses with manage class and investors all working together to remake South-East. We are no longer comprehensively depending on the government, but we want to partner with the government to remake and bring development back to the South-East.
He listed agriculture, information technology, energy, creative industry, MSMSEs, sports, among others as some of the thematic areas of interest which the region can utilise to leverage upon and remake itself.
A former Minister of Power and the current Vice-Chancellor, University of the Niger, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, who delivered the keynote address with the theme, ‘Unlocking South-East potential: The critical role of infrastructure to rebuilding South-East economy’, highlighted the need for the private sector to lead the growth project.
Nebo said energy being a key component of the growth of any society, must be unlocked for the region to achieve the development it seeks, adding that the summit will focus on creating actionable strategies to tackle issues of stability, economic growth, and inclusivity for the region.
