The South East Development Commission (SEDC) has set itself an audacious target to grow the region’s economy to $200 billion by 2035. It is the kind of goal that demands not just capital, but coordination and a willingness to rethink how development happens. And technology is emerging as a central pillar in that equation.
For Mark Okoye II, the commission’s managing director and chief executive officer, the assignment is familiar.
Before taking on this role, Okoye spent more than a decade in public service, including five years as Anambra State’s commissioner for economic planning, budget, and development partnerships. That experience offered a close-up view of how policy, finance, and infrastructure intersect. But the SEDC’s mandate, spanning five states and more than 20 million people, presents a challenge of a different scale.
Nigeria’s South East, comprising Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo, has long been defined by its entrepreneurial spirit. From bustling markets to diaspora-driven enterprises, the region’s commercial instincts are deeply ingrained. Yet, translating that energy into a coordinated, high-growth economic strategy has remained elusive.
The commission’s roadmap rests on four pillars: agriculture, industrialisation, technology, and the creative economy. Each reflects both the region’s existing strengths and its unrealised potential. Agriculture and manufacturing offer pathways to scale production and exports; the creative economy taps into a youthful, culturally vibrant population. But it is technology, often the least visible sector, that could determine whether the broader ambition succeeds or stalls.
Early signals from the commission’s own research point to the scale of the task. A survey conducted shortly after its establishment identified major infrastructure deficits as residents’ top priorities: a regional rail network, gas pipelines, new highways, and a seaport.
Yet the gap between ambition and available public funding is stark. The House of Representatives approved a ₦140 billion ($100 million) budget in March 2026, but that alone is not enough to fund any of these projects. Thus, it is adopting a more catalytic approach by deploying limited capital to de-risk opportunities and attract private investment at scale.
One notable expression of that strategy is a proposed $50 million venture capital fund aimed at startups operating in or impacting the South East. The pitch is that entrepreneurs operating in the region can also build technology solutions on par with those anywhere on the continent. But convincing investors of that thesis is not always easy.
“You go into conversations with a lot of venture capital firms and there’s the view that there isn’t enough innovation or spotlight coming from all these other markets,” Okoye says.
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Building the rails for growth
Nigeria’s technology ecosystem has historically been concentrated in Lagos, with capital, talent, and visibility clustering around a single urban hub. By comparison, the South East has received far less attention from global investors. Okoye does not dispute the current imbalance. What he challenges, though, is the assumption that it reflects a lack of capability.
“There is talent here,” he insists, arguing that the constraint has been less about ideas and more about access to finance. Without early-stage capital, promising ventures struggle to gain traction; without traction, they remain invisible to larger investors. It is a cycle the commission hopes to break.
To that end, the SEDC has established the South East Investment Company, an investment vehicle tasked with designing the legal and governance framework for the fund. A professional fund manager — expected to be appointed in the coming months will oversee day-to-day operations, while the commission maintains a more strategic role.
The target is to reach a first close of $15 million over the next seven months. While declining to reveal names, Okoye shares that a number of investors, including a DFI, have made firm commitments to the fund. An advisory committee, set up in 2025 to shape the fund’s policy direction, includes Somachi Chris-Asoluka, Emeka Afigbo, Patrick Okigbo III, Innocent Isichei, John Onuigbo, and Arinze Chilo-Offiah.
In a country where government-led investment initiatives are often viewed with scepticism, the commission is keen to emphasise its independence and transparency. It plans to take a board seat but avoid direct control over investment decisions.
Alongside the fund, the commission has launched a startup pitch competition, offering $20,000 in equity funding to selected ventures, receiving more than 1,000 applications within the first four days.
For Okoye, the competition serves a dual purpose. It provides much-needed early capital but also introduces entrepreneurs to the discipline that venture-backed growth demands — governance structures, reporting standards, and a focus on scalability.
While preference is given to founders based in the South East, entrepreneurs outside the region and in the diaspora are also considered, provided their solutions address challenges within the region.
Adapting venture capital to a local context
Still, funding remains the most immediate hurdle, and not just from international investors. Nigeria’s venture capital ecosystem is heavily dependent on limited partners from the United States, Europe, and Asia, leaving it exposed to external economic shocks. While the SEDC does not rule out raising capital from these markets, it is equally focused on cultivating domestic sources of funding.
That effort, however, comes with its own complications. Many of the region’s high-net-worth individuals have built their wealth in sectors such as trading and manufacturing, industries with more predictable returns than venture capital. Convincing them to invest in startups, where losses are common and timelines are uncertain, requires more than a compelling pitch.
The commission’s approach is to meet these investors halfway. Rather than emphasising the high-risk, high-return model typical of Silicon Valley, it is framing venture investments around sustainability and long-term value creation — concepts that resonate more closely with traditional business practices in the region.
Whether that pitch will unlock significant local capital remains to be seen. Venture capital firms operating in Nigeria have spent years making similar arguments, often with mixed results. The SEDC’s involvement may lend additional credibility, but it is unlikely to transform investor behaviour overnight.
And even if the funding materialises, capital alone will not be enough. Technology ecosystems depend on a broader enabling environment — reliable internet connectivity, supportive regulations, and a business climate that encourages experimentation. On that front, the South East still has ground to cover.
According to the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council, only Enugu (from the South East) ranked among Nigeria’s top 10 states for ease of doing business in 2025. As a region, the South East placed third, behind the South West and North Central. The disparity underscores the need for greater policy alignment across states.
The commission has already begun engaging with state governments to develop unified frameworks to improve the ease of doing business. The goal is to reduce fragmentation, ensuring that companies operating across state lines encounter consistent regulations rather than a patchwork of rules.
Digital infrastructure is another priority. The SEDC has initiated feasibility studies for expanding fibre-optic networks, a critical step toward improving internet speed and reliability. In parallel, it is exploring grant programmes to support existing innovation hubs, often the first point of contact for early-stage founders.
Taken together, these efforts suggest a development strategy that is both pragmatic and ambitious. Whether it succeeds will depend on execution as much as intent.
Regional development is rarely linear, and the interplay between government intervention and market forces can be unpredictable. That tension sits at the heart of the SEDC’s experiment. It is an attempt to use public capital as a catalyst to spark activity where the market has hesitated and then step back as it gathers momentum.
In that sense, the commission’s venture into technology investing is not just about startups or funding rounds. It is a test of a broader proposition: that with the right mix of policy, capital, and trust, regions long overlooked can begin to tell a different economic story. And like any powerful tool, the outcome will depend less on the ambition behind it than on the precision of its use.
