News
Investment potential: NITDA sets up South East Zonal Office in Enugu
…as state gov’t collaborates with agency on digital skills, ICT for youth
In anticipation of Enugu State becoming a major investment hub in the country, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), has added to the growing number of corporate and multilateral institutions that have established presence in state in the past few months, taking advantage of the investment friendly disposition of Governor Peter Mbah, and the improved security in the state.
The Advocate reports that shortly after the Enugu State Investment Roundtable which drew the attendance of international creditors, donor agencies, potential investors and foreign missions, the British High Commission in Nigeria, on Monday, September 11, announced the opening of its visa centre in Enugu on the request of the governor and other stakeholders interested in doing business in the state.
The Director General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, disclosed on Wednesday that approval has been given by the agency to set up a regional office in Enugu State, stressing that the decision was inspired by the investment potentials in the state.
The Director General, who was represented by the Director of Zonal Offices, Babajide Ajayi, said during a courtesy visit to the governor, Dr. Peter Mbah, at the Enugu Government House on Wednesday, that the governor had repositioned the state as a destination for investment and business possibilities.
The NITDA DG further revealed that their visit was necessitated by their desire to collaborate with the state in achieving its strategic objectives and vision, noting that the partnership would elevate the state in line with the governor’s mission and vision of making the state attractive for investors from different sectors across the globe.
“We are here in Enugu State to look at how we can actually deepen our collaboration with the state government. We don’t want to just stay in abuja and do things in isolation. We want to work with the state government, we want to collaborate with you. We want to connect with the stakeholders in the state in the ecosystem, and we also want to share our strategic vision with the state and see how the state can also tap into our vision. In addition to this, we want to explain how we can further partner with the state and the ecosystem to drive digital economy.
“We want to actually hear from them and see how we can move the state forward with regards to ICT,” he added.
On his part, the Director, Corporate Planning and Strategy, Dr. Aristotle Onumo, commended Governor Mbah for the strategic steps his administration has been taking in the area of technology, maintaining that the decision to site the agency’s zonal office in the state was a milestone and result of the commitment the governor had shown in his effort to “engage and move Enugu State, especially young people to breathe and have something meaningful doing”.
According to him, the responsibility of government was beyond job creation to engaging the people, lifting them out of the pit of poverty and improving the human capital index, adding that these responsibilities could not be achieved without collaboration.
“It is on that note that we as an agency are keying in to that government programme of poverty alleviation, job creation, entrepreneurship and also supporting start-ups. And that is why we are here for this conversation with the Enugu State stakeholders and His Excellency the Governor particularly and also see how Enugu State Government will benefit from the agency’s programme. We have the focus and the goal to develop about 1 million talents to empower our youths. We want to engage the youths to leave criminality and crimes through digital economy,” he stressed.
Reacting to the visit, Governor Mbah said the state was ready to collaborate with the agency on the training of youths in the state on digital skills, information and communication technology (ICT) which would make them self-reliant, create wealth for themselves and get others engaged.
He said the state was already positioned to take advantage of the business-friendly environment which his administration had deliberately put in place such as derisking investment flow, harmonizing the land tenure system for investment, removing barriers and bottlenecks that could discourage investors and equip the youths as a viable workforce.
The governor informed the agency of his government’s efforts to expose the youths to the emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, mechatronics, virtual reality, augmented reality, robotics, fintech and others, which are presently driving the global economy, stressing that the state would be glad to partner with the agency to achieve its objectives.
“We recognise that a lot of the skill set that the youths have today may no longer be relevant to the emerging future. And this emerging future requires our young people to be upskilled digitally so that they can embrace the emerging possibilities it affords. So we know that the world is now moving into robotics, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and agumented reality,” he added.
The governor, who appreciated the federal government for choosing Enugu for its regional headquarters, further said his administration would partner with NITDA to train and upskill a minimum of 40,000 youths in the state annually as a way of empowering them and ensuring they could become major players in the digital space.
Speaking on the role of technology in phasing out the brick-and-mortar method of trading which was becoming old-fashioned, Mbah said plans were already being perfected to equip young ones in the state with fintech and cyber security skills to enable them integrate into the digital market, saying “we are going to equip them with the skills that allow them to do e-commerce so that they will be able to have their market base in the entire globe”.
He stressed that the economy of the state would not only be driven by technology, it would help the administration achieve its strategic objectives of growing the economy seven-fold from $4.4 billion to $30 billion, and eradicate poverty from the nook and crannies of the state.
“We are going to drive that growth with technology and not magic. The exponential growth projection can only come through technology. We have already started doing it. If you look at our governance structure, we have migrated our services to digital platform. Currently, we are digitising and we started with the 11 ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs), and we are looking at extending it to the 109 MDAs that we have in the state. We have already intervened in our land administration and management system. People are able to apply and obtain their certificate of occupancy within 72 hours. And when I say 72 hours, my team members will always interrupt and say ‘no, it’s 48 hours’. I don’t think there is any city in Africa where you can apply and get your certificate of occupancy in 72 hours,” the governor added.
…Mbah: Enugu has a lot of success stories to tell in 3 years
Enugu State has shone brilliantly at the BusinessDay States Competitiveness and Investment Readiness Awards (SCIRA) 2025, carting home the Infrastructure Development Competitiveness Award and Outstanding Performance in Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) Award.
Governor Peter Mbah, represented by the Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Engr. Ben Okoh and the Executive Chairman, Enugu State Internal Revenue Service (ESIRS), Mr. Emmanuel Nnamani, received the awards on behalf of the state government in Abuja, Thursday night.
Presenting the awards, the Publisher/CEO of BusinessDay Media Limited, said Governor Mbah had impacted public infrastructure in a way that goes beyond just playing politics.
“In the last six months, I have had the opportunity of travelling to Enugu three times. The first time I visited in January, my taxi driver was eager to take me around. That caught my imagination. I began to ask questions and I began to look around.
“One thing I found especially quite interesting was that Governor Mbah did not set aside everything that he met, which could have been a waste of public resources. He looked at what is good and he rebuilt them; the ones that were not completed, he completed them.
“Two things that struck me because I had to ask a question, where does he get the money? I saw good roads, and I don’t mean good roads in the major highways, I mean good roads even in the communities that are far away from the prime areas of the state capital, Enugu.
“I thought that that is a very good example of a private sector person, who knows what to do with resources, because if you use resources well, you get more from little and that is what the governor has done. And for that, Governor Mbah is receiving this award. He has impacted public infrastructure in a way that goes beyond just playing politics,” he stated.
Speaking, Engr. Okoh thanked BusinessDay for recognising the Mbah Administration’s efforts at rewriting the narrative of the state, stressing that Enugu had a lot of success stories to tell in just three years.
He, however, described the awards as a motivation to do more, noting, “as the governor always says, you ain’t seen nothing yet.”
Okoh went on to reel out some of the achievements of the administration, saying that “Enugu State has witnessed an unprecedented infrastructural revolution, the type we have never seen since the advent of this present democracy in 1999.”
“Projects that were inherited even from governments that left office in 2007- for instance, the International Conference Centre, Mbah has completed it. Hotel Presidential, the flagship hotel of the old Eastern Region, and the Nigergas Company, which has remained moribund for over 30 years, have been revived.
“Being the commissioner for Works and Infrastructure in the state, I can stand here confidently to say that no government since 1999 achieved what Governor Mbah has achieved in three years.
“I can say that in terms of road construction, in just three years, we have done far more than double what any other government did in eight years. No government in Enugu since 1999 did up to 600Km of roads in eight years.
“Under Governor Mbah, we have 267 smart schools across the state and 260 Primary Healthcare Centres to our credit.
“We are developing the New Enugu City, a world-class smart city. The present Enugu City is about 14,000 hectares, while the New City is approximately 10,000 hectares. To put this in perspective, the New Enugu City is almost the same size as Paris, Milan or Barcelona, making it one of the largest planned urban developments in Africa.
The New Enugu City is also larger than Manchester or the entire Phase One of the Federal Capital City, Abuja, which comprises the districts of Asokoro, Maitama, Maitama Extension, Wuse I (Zone 1 – 7), Wuse II, Garki I (Area 1 – 11), Garki II, the Central Business District, Three Arms Zone, Guzape I, and Guzape II.
This is the first time a state in Nigeria would be undertaking an integrated infrastructure development, which is what we have in the FCT where all the facilities in the modern city are underground, and telecommunications lines- the fibre optics, the electrical cables, water pipes, everything is underground. It is not just a vision; the projects are already ongoing.
“There is no particular sector that Governor Peter Ndubuisi Mbah has not touched, be it tourism, security, agriculture, education or even transport sector where the administration floated Enugu Air, built five ultramodern transport terminals and launched over 150 CNG buses,” he said.
It is also recalled that the Mbah Administration has disrupted the state’s IGR space, where he used reforms and technology to grow the state’s IGR exponentially from N26.8bn in 2022 to N37.4bn in 2023, N180.5bn in 2024, and N406.7bn in 2025, with tax revenue accounting for just N51.5bn or 12.6 per cent of the 2025 IGR proceeds.
Meanwhile, BusinessDay is Nigeria’s leading business newspaper and the SCIA recognises and celebrates states that have demonstrated exceptional performance in governance, economic development, infrastructure delivery, investment promotion, and the creation of an enabling environment for businesses and citizens to thrive.
A legal practitioner, Barrister Chinedu Ifeanyi Iloeje, has publicly declared that a man previously believed to be his son is not biologically related to him, following the outcome of a DNA test.
In a public notice published in a newspaper, Iloeje stated that he was allegedly misled by the man’s mother into believing that the individual, identified as Chinedu Francis Iloeje, was his biological son.
According to the notice, DNA testing conducted on the matter established “beyond any doubt” that the man is not his son.
The lawyer further clarified that he never legally adopted the individual, despite the latter bearing the name Chinedu Francis Iloeje.
Disclaimer
Barrister Iloeje explained that the man’s original name is Chinedu Francis Onwualu and stressed that he has no legal or biological relationship with him.
The notice also informed members of the public, the Greater Iloeje Family, the Umuodu Village Union, Uwani Amokwe Town Union, St. Theresa’s Catholic Church Amokwe, Udi Local Government Council, and other stakeholders of his declaration.
He stated that the disclaimer was made in good faith and while of sound mind, urging the public to take note of the clarification.
The publication has sparked discussions on paternity disputes and the increasing reliance on DNA testing to resolve questions of biological parentage.
Presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) in the forthcoming 2027 general election, Mr. Peter Obi, has donated N10 million to assist in the renovation of the burnt Mother of Christ Specialist Hospital, Enugu State.
The former Anambra State governor handed over the cheque for the donation to the hospital management team when he visited the hospital yesterday.
The hospital belongs to the Reverend Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of the Catholic Church.
Mr Peter Obi inspecting the burnt hospital
Addressing the hospital management team after inspecting parts of the burnt hospital, the NDC presidential candidate commended them for their efforts in contributing to healthcare delivery services.
Telling them that even though they might feel that they were not being appreciated for what they were doing, Obi, however, described healthcare delivery services and education as among the “most critical needs of society” and urged them not to relent in what they were doing.
Accompanied during the visit by his Chief of Staff, Commissioner for Housing, as well as Special Adviser on Media when he was Anambra State governor, Prof. Stella Okunna, Prof. Patrick Obi, and Dr. Valentine Obienyem respectively, Obi assured the hospital management team that he would continue to support them.
Part of the hospital gutted by the inferno and inspected by Obi was the Children’s Ward.
Expressing gratitude on behalf of the hospital management, the Chief Medical Director of Immaculate Heart Hospital, Nkpor, Anambra State, Rev. Sister Dr. Maria Nkiruka Okafor, eulogised Obi for his sacrifices and selfless contributions to humanity.
Disclosing that Obi had already credited the hospital’s accountant with the N10 million donation and that he was even the person who called her to inform her that he had received the sad news of the inferno and promised to donate towards the renovation, Rev. Sister Okafor described him as a rare politician.
She prayed that God would grant him his ambition to become President of the country and enable him to achieve his desire to transform it.
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