SOUTH-EAST PRIVATE SECTOR SEEKS NGN 200BN TO PUT LIFE INTO MSMES – WATCH VIDEO
The clout of the political class and the determined involvement of South-East private businessmen converged on Abuja Friday in a move towards redefining the economic fortune of the region.
The initiative, being driven by the South-East Business and Investment Summit Group SEBIS was the first public step to set up a NGN 200billion fund to reduce bureaucratic barriers.
There were two former Presidents of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria at the occasion, Anyim Pius Anyim and Ken Nnamani. There were also Special Advisers, governorship candidates and a number of high government officials.
That was how serious the Abuja event, a town hall towards the second summit aimed at redefining the economic fortunes of the South East region.
Both former Senators cautioned against the business class going it alone.
Senator Ken Nnamani was unequivocal. He advised that building trust between the business class and the governments of the South East was the best way of aligning government policy to support the economic initiative and drive of the business community.
Anyim Pius Anyim spoke in the same vein. He called on the South-East governments to create the appropriate environment healthy for and attractive to investors and also advised the organizers of the Abuja event to take the South East governments along.
Policy strategies and Director of the Abuja School of Social and Political thoughts, Dr Sam Amadi, who was the keynote speaker laid out the success factors to drive the economic renaissance of the South-East Region.
He called for a United and harmonized development agenda for the five states and standardized investment laws which will apply to business investment.
The Executive Secretary of SEBIS, Dr. Ifedi Okwenna, while welcoming guests to the event expressed worry about the dwindling fortunes of the South East economy especially in the area of small and medium scale enterprises. He said that the NGN 200 billion fund was to address the easy-to-fix sections of the South- East economy and attend to what he described as low hanging fruits.
The two hundered billion naira fund is only first in a major move to raise over three trillion naira to give a push to the economy of the South East region and make it contribute to the overall all national development.
