Nigeria’s Vice President, Sen. Kashim Shettima, has unveiled a 25-year development blueprint designed to drive long-term growth and create jobs for Nigerian youths.
Shettima announced the initiative at the South-East Vision 2050 Regional Stakeholders’ Forum in Enugu, stressing the need for a structured, multi-decade framework to ensure policy continuity and strengthen investor confidence.
The blueprint focuses on job creation, major infrastructure renewal, and industrial expansion, with the aim of transforming the region’s economy.
To support its implementation, President Bola Tinubu has approved the establishment of the South East Investment Company Limited, a special-purpose investment vehicle that will mobilise funding from the diaspora, capital markets, and development finance institutions.
“This initiative represents a decisive break from short-term political planning, replacing it with a structured, multi-decade framework designed to ensure policy continuity, strengthen investor confidence, and deliver measurable economic results,” Shettima said.
The Vice President noted that the new investment company would harness the South-East’s strong entrepreneurial culture, vibrant diaspora networks, and access to global capital to drive growth and development. He also reaffirmed the mandate of the South-East Development Commission (SEDC), describing it as a results-driven delivery institution focused on structural transformation.
“The SEDC was conceived as a results-driven delivery institution focused on structural transformation, not routine bureaucracy,” he said. “Nigeria’s overall prosperity is inseparable from the economic vitality of its regions.”
The Vision 2050 blueprint is intended to translate planning into tangible outcomes, particularly in employment generation, productivity growth, and industrial capacity expansion. It will also address historical development challenges through deliberate economic coordination.
The forum attracted representatives from federal and state governments, traditional institutions, the private sector, civil society, and development partners, reflecting the region’s collective resolve to shape its future. Shettima commended the broad-based participation and singled out Umu Igbo Unite, a United States-based network of young professionals, as an example of the diaspora’s growing role in regional development.
“Development must translate into visible improvements in livelihoods,” he said, addressing young people. “Young people remain central to Nigeria’s economic future.”
South-East governors in attendance, including Enugu State Governor Peter Mbah, Ebonyi State Governor Francis Nwifuru, Abia State Governor Dr. Alex Otti, and Anambra State Governor Prof. Charles Soludo, endorsed the Vision 2050 framework, describing it as a platform for aligning regional aspirations with national economic priorities.
