The South-East Development Commission has urged entrepreneurs and business owners in the region to embrace partnerships, pool resources and build institutions capable of surviving beyond their founders.
The commission said individual prosperity alone could not drive sustainable regional development, stressing the need for organised investment and stronger collaboration between the public and private sectors.
The Executive Director of Projects, SEDC, Rt. Hon. Toby Okechukwu, made the call at the 10th anniversary of De Pinnacle International Social Club in Abuja, where he spoke on “Regional Development, Public-Private Partnership and the Role of Institutions like SEDC in Shaping the Future of South-East Nigeria.”
Okechukwu said the people of the South-East had demonstrated strong social cohesion through ceremonies, festivals, marriages and other communal activities, but argued that the same spirit had not sufficiently translated into business partnerships.
He urged entrepreneurs to move away from businesses built entirely around individual owners and establish enterprises with proper corporate governance, succession plans, independent boards and sound financial structures.
“Regional development cannot happen with individual prosperity alone. It needs organised prosperity,” Okechukwu said, adding that businesses should be structured to outlive their founders rather than collapse when the owners die or withdraw.
He also called for a shift from trading to manufacturing, noting that while trading generates profits, manufacturing creates value chains and jobs. He cited the Dangote Refinery as an example of how a business could evolve into an institution capable of mobilising capital beyond its founder.
On the role of SEDC, Okechukwu said neither government nor the private sector could develop the region alone, stressing that the commission was established to provide a platform for harmonising efforts between both sectors.
He disclosed that the commission’s vision was to make the South-East the preferred investment destination in Africa by 2035. Among the platforms being developed to achieve this are the South-East Investment Company (SEIC), agriculture and sports initiatives, and a $50 million Venture Capital Programme designed to provide equity investment to promising businesses and ideas.
The SEDC executive further encouraged South-East entrepreneurs to collectively invest in large-scale projects, saying the region possessed the human and financial resources required for economic transformation if its capital could be effectively organised.