The Ebonyi State Governor, David Umahi; and the President-General of Ohaneze Ndigbo Worldwide, Chief Nnia Nwodo, on Tuesday reiterated the need for Ndigbo in diaspora to return home and invest towards economic development of the region.
The two Igbo leaders, who spoke in Abakaliki on Tuesday, on the occasion of the Ebonyi Business Forum, which held at the Ecumenical Centre, said the way and manner Ndigbo continued to overlook the investment opportunities abound in the zone was partly responsible for the slow pace of economic development in the region.
The two leaders insisted that the situation must change if the region was ready to take its rightful place in the country.
Speaking on the business opportunities in Ebonyi State, Umahi noted that his administration had made efforts in repositioning the state to welcome and accommodate all kinds of investors in the state.
He said, “Ebonyians and Ndigbo in general should visit and invest in any sector of their interest. All the necessary environments that aided the growth of businesses have been provided in the state.”
Nwodo applauded the Igbo investors from Lagos State who were in the state for investment purposes, saying with the level of infrastructural development in Ebonyi, the state would soon become the economic hub of the entire South-East.
He said, “It is said a good wealth is the one that reaches home. I am aware that Igbo registered voters in Lagos are more than three million people.
“But during the elections, they are reminded that Lagos is not their father’s land. When things like that happen, it reminds you that you come from somewhere; and the need to go home. We have to develop Alaigbo, and turn it into what Catalonian is to t Spain, and what Berlin is to Germany,”
Credit: Punch