The federal government has taken a firm step towards facilitating the rapid industrialisation of the South-east zone of the country by establishing a regional gas distribution network.
The project, with the initial phase costing $100 million, is being undertaken by the South-east Development Commission(SEDC) and is expected to not only boost industrialisation but also attract investments and create jobs in the region.
To kick-start the project, the investment agreement was signed on Tuesday at the South-east Gas Infrastructure Investment and Project Development Ceremony held at Hotel Presidential, Enugu with all the parties pledging to ensure its full realisation.
The 400-kilometre pipeline project, designed to connect gas resources to industrial and commercial centres across Enugu, Anambra, Imo, Abia and Ebonyi states, has about 150 potential customers already identified, with projected demand of 254 million standard cubic feet of gas per day, the organisers said.
Speaking at the event, President Bola Tinubu, represented by the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, described the project as a strategic investment that would connect the region’s natural gas resources to industries, strengthen manufacturing and unlock economic opportunities across the five states.
“The South-east’s entrepreneurial spirit is one of Nigeria’s greatest economic assets. I have always believed that the prosperity of the Southeast is inseparable from the prosperity of Nigeria,” the President said.
He said the project aligned with his administration’s commitment to building an integrated regional economy, stressing that gas infrastructure should support industrial development across state boundaries rather than serve isolated markets.
“Gas infrastructure must therefore serve industries and markets, not stop at political boundaries. That is the economic logic of regional integration,” he said.
According to him, the gas pipeline would connect Imo’s gas resources to the wider regional economy, thereby benefiting manufacturers in Aba, strengthen industrial clusters in Nnewi and Onitsha, attract productive enterprises to Enugu, expand agro-processing and manufacturing in Ebonyi.
He, however, stated that the projected benefits extended beyond supplying existing factories to creating the conditions for new industries, industrial parks and investments that had stalled because of unreliable energy supply.
“Our ambition is not simply to deliver gas to existing factories. It is to make possible factories that do not yet exist, industrial parks yet to be developed, and investments that have remained on the drawing board because reliable energy was unavailable,” Tinubu said.
He described the SEDC as an institution established to deliver measurable development outcomes, urging it to assess its performance by the investments it mobilised, infrastructure it enabled, opportunities it created and lives it improved.
The President said the South-east Vision 2050 development framework, supported by Vice-President Kashim Shettima and the governors of the region, provided a foundation for coordinated economic growth.
He also cited his approval of the South-east Investment Company as part of efforts to attract private capital into strategic development projects, noting that governments could not finance every development ambition from public funds.
“This is the model I expect from our development institutions: identify strategic economic opportunities, prepare credible projects, commit public resources responsibly and mobilise private capital at a scale government budgets alone cannot achieve,” he said.
Tinubu commended the SEDC for committing $3 million to the gas project and establishing a framework to mobilise additional investments from state governments, institutions and private investors.
He said the project’s initial phase required approximately $100 million, describing the partnership between public institutions and private investors as essential to developing sustainable infrastructure.
“We are not investing in pipelines for their own sake. We are investing in the industries, businesses and jobs those pipelines will make possible,” Tinubu said.
He, therefore, urged the Commission and its partners to uphold commercial discipline, transparency, environmental responsibility, community engagement and the highest safety standards throughout the project’s implementation.
“The true measure of government commitment is not what we promise, but what we deliver,” he said, expressing optimism that the investment would help create an industrial economy capable of competing in African and global markets.
Tinubu said the ultimate objective was to translate the region’s natural resources into productive economic activity, employment and improved living standards.
“Let the gas beneath our soil power our industries. Let that energy become production. Let production become employment. Let employment become prosperity for our people,” he declared.
The President urged the SEDC, the five state governments, and project partners to establish clear implementation timelines, measurable milestones and regular progress reports.
He said that the success of the gas pipeline project would ultimately be measured by its ability to attract investments, revive industries, create jobs and improve the economic fortunes of people across the five Southeast states.
Enugu State Governor, Dr. Peter Mbah, commended Tinubu for establishing the SEDC, describing the Commission as the institutional vehicle needed to realise the longstanding industrialisation aspirations of the Southeast.
“Tinubu loves the Igbo. The SEDC is a Commission whose time has come. It was an idea conceived many decades ago, but it took President Tinubu to establish this long-awaited dream of industrialisation of the South-east,” Mbah asserted.
He described the signing of the investment agreement as the commencement of the investment process, adding that the initiative would help realise the region’s aspiration for a common market and coordinated industrial development.
“What we have just signed here today is an investment agreement, meaning that investment has commenced,” he said.
Mbah, who expressed his excitement that the project was coming into reality less than 13 months after he publicly advocated the idea, praised the Commission for adopting an innovative financing model that brings governments and private investors together.
He said the project would create opportunities for young people to build their futures in the Southeast rather than migrating to other parts of the country or even outside Nigeria in search of jobs.
“Before now, it was our young people running out of the region in search of greener pastures. But with what we have now, our young people can sit back and find their future here in the region. This is all thanks to President Tinubu,” he said.
Imo State Deputy Governor, Chinyere Ekomaru, who represented Governor Hope Uzodimma, commended Tinubu and the SEDC for initiating the project, noting that Imo’s substantial natural gas resources placed the state in a strategic position to benefit.
She said the project was coming at an opportune time, particularly as companies were seeking to become offtakers of gas from the Assa North–Ohaji South development.
Ekomaru urged residents to consider the federal government’s infrastructure investments in the South-east in making their political choices ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Anambra State Deputy Governor Dr Onyekachukwu Ibezim, representing Governor Chukwuma Soludo, commended the commission but stressed that its success would ultimately be determined by its impact on the people.
“We will clap for you when we begin to feel the impact of what you are doing,” he said.
Ibezim noted that states across the region had gas resources that could support industrial growth if properly developed. He urged communities along the pipeline route to embrace the project and cooperate with its promoters.
“I want to urge the communities through which the pipelines will pass to have a buy-in. We are strongly behind the Commission,” he said, while expressing satisfaction at the enthusiasm shown by industrialists at the event.
Ebonyi State Deputy Governor, Mrs Patricia Obila, representing Governor Francis Nwifuru, stressed the crucial importance of energy to industrial growth, lamenting that inadequate power supply had contributed to the decline of several enterprises in the region.
“Energy is power. Its importance cannot be overemphasised. With it, factories will produce, the economy will blossom and employment will be great,” she said.
Obila expressed the Ebonyi government’s readiness to support the project, promising to provide the necessary cooperation to facilitate its implementation and help in reviving moribund companies.
Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Regional Development, Dr Mary Ogbe, said the SEDC was developing initiatives capable of improving living standards across the Southeast.
She assured the governors that the Commission would complement their development efforts rather than compete with them, while urging investors to take advantage of the opportunities emerging from the project.
In his remarks, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of SEDC, Mark Okoye, said the Commission had conducted technical, financial and legal due diligence with approval from its Governing Board, before committing funds to the pipeline project,
He said that the Commission was targeting aggregate regional investment participation of up to $30 million, including its initial $3 million commitment, as part of efforts to mobilise the private capital required to advance the project.
He said the initiative aligned with the Commission’s industrialisation programme and its commitment to developing infrastructure that would benefit the entire region.
Representing GasSync, the project promoter, Callistus Mba said the pipeline would connect gas resources close to the South-east to industrial users across the five states, reducing dependence on the expensive transportation of compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) by road.
He said the proposed network would originate from the Ohaji area of Imo State, run through Owerri and branch towards Aba in Abia State and Onitsha in Anambra State, with extensions to Enugu and Ebonyi.
Following concerns raised by Governor Mbah that constructing the entire network sequentially from Imo could delay gas supply to other states, Mba said the company planned to begin construction at two points simultaneously to accelerate timely delivery.
“We are going to start at Ohaji and Onitsha at the same time,” he said, adding that the approach would allow construction towards Enugu and Ebonyi to progress alongside work on the Imo and Anambra sections.
He said the company had identified about 150 prospective customers across the region and was engaging industries to secure demand for the gas, including manufacturing companies, power-generation facilities and agro-processing businesses.
Mba cited Geometric Power in Aba, Abia State among the companies with which engagement was already underway. He added that the pipeline would support efforts to revive moribund industries in Enugu and develop agro-processing facilities in Ebonyi.
On the project timeline, he said procurement activities had commenced, funding arrangements were advancing towards financial close, and preparations for engineering, procurement and construction were progressing.
“We intend to start construction in the first quarter of 2027,” Mba said, projecting that the project would be ready for first gas delivery in the second quarter of 2028, subject to the completion of the necessary requirements.
Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo
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