Thousands of entrepreneurs, civil servants, career professionals and young Nigerians from across the Southeast converged on Awka, the Anambra State capital, over the weekend for the maiden Southeast edition of the Business, Balance and Beyond (B³) Summit.
The summit, themed “Beyond the Bank: Redefining Wealth, Worth and Well-being,” brought together participants from Anambra, Enugu, Abia, Imo and Ebonyi states for discussions on business, personal development, health, relationships and overall well-being.
The event, convened by Dr Ella Chioma Ezeadilieje, popularly known as ‘Veronica’s Daughter’, also featured a free children’s corner designed to enable parents to participate fully in the programme.
Speaking at the event, Ezeadilieje challenged entrepreneurs in the Southeast to move beyond merely consuming content online and begin using digital platforms to showcase and sell their products and services to a wider market.
She said the Southeast was not lacking in quality products or entrepreneurial talent but needed to embrace smarter ways of doing business, particularly through digital visibility.
“I do not say the Southeast is not online. You are online, but you are mostly consumers. You are not the one whose content is being consumed. You are not the person carrying your market to the world,” she said.
The convener, who described herself as an “accidental influencer”, said her journey to building a strong personal brand began with simple Facebook posts about her experiences and her mother, Veronica.
According to her, the experience demonstrated the power of digital storytelling and showed how ordinary content could grow into something capable of reaching a large audience.
Ezeadilieje recalled that while preparing for the summit, she visited Onitsha Market and was impressed by the quality and affordability of products available there but noted that many of the businesses had little online visibility.
“I went to the Onitsha market and I was shocked at the quality and the price of what I saw. These are things that, if they were online, in that power, in that number, they would sell out in days,” she said.
She urged Southeast entrepreneurs to complement hard work with smart work by learning how to use digital tools to structure, market and scale their businesses.
The summit was built around three major pillars: health, business and relationships, with Ezeadilieje describing relationships as one of the areas most neglected by many people.
She said an interactive poll conducted among participants at the beginning of the event showed overwhelming interest in wealth, while only a few participants selected relationships.
“When I asked who wrote relationship, I barely saw hands. And that is a problem, because we think wealth is the money in our bank. But there are incurable diseases that all the money in the world cannot fix,” she said.
On health, she stressed the importance of preventive care, urging Nigerians to adopt the habit of undergoing regular medical checks instead of waiting until they become seriously ill.
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“A lot of us will never walk into a hospital until something is wrong. We are more reactive than proactive,” she noted.
Participants also had access to free health checks as part of the summit’s practical interventions.
On entrepreneurship, the convener identified access to digital tools and funding as two critical areas requiring greater support for businesses in the Southeast.
The summit featured a ₦5 million grant opportunity for qualifying entrepreneurs and a lineup of speakers, including Nollywood actress and humanitarian Rechael Okonkwo, popularly known for her role as ‘Nkoli Nwa Nsukka’; Managing Director of Pamtech Group, Engr. Chidomere Ndubuisi, popularly known as the ‘Billionaire Mechanic’; and health advocate Dr Kelechi Okoro.
Panel discussions were moderated by media strategist and founder of SurThrive Media, Dr Chioma Ezenwafor, and Ms Myra Nwanneka Bright.
Other speakers and panellists included Chief Joseph Ezeadilieje; Onitsha Business Hangout Convener, Ifeanyi Ogbaji; Arc. Chukwudi Ezenwa; Chairman of GSS Group, Prof. Olusegun Sogbesan; Director of Onitsha Business School; and Kelvin Onovo, founder of Yagazie Property.
The B³ Summit was launched in Port Harcourt in 2024, with the Awka edition marking its first expansion into the Southeast.
The organisers said the summit was designed to encourage participants to rethink conventional definitions of wealth by placing equal emphasis on financial prosperity, health, relationships and personal worth.
