A finance professor has urged the five South East states of Nigeria to harness the capital market as a strategic tool for regional economic transformation, proposing a joint bond-issuing vehicle that could raise up to N5 trillion for infrastructure development.

Prof. Uche Uwaleke, President of the Capital Market Academics of Nigeria, made the case in a paper arguing that despite the region’s vast endowments — including oil and gas reserves, agricultural land, industrial clusters in Nnewi and Aba, and one of Africa’s most accomplished diaspora communities — the South East has failed to translate its assets into commensurate economic development.

He attributed the gap largely to fragmented governance and a lack of coordinated regional financing, noting that states continue to pursue infrastructure projects in isolation, resulting in duplication, weak integration, and poor outcomes.

To address this, Prof. Uwaleke proposed the establishment of a South East States Pooled Finance Entity (SESPFE) — a special purpose vehicle jointly owned by Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo states — to issue pooled infrastructure bonds on the capital market. He suggested the bonds be issued in tranches over time, carrying a seven-year tenor and backed by mechanisms such as Irrevocable Standing Payment Orders tied to state allocations, sinking funds, and partial guarantees from institutions like the African Development Bank.

The professor drew on international precedents, including India’s Tamil Nadu Pooled Finance Development Fund and similar models in Brazil and Canada, to argue that subnational cooperation through pooled financing reduces borrowing costs and improves investor confidence.

Priority projects identified include an integrated transportation corridor linking Aba, Onitsha, Nnewi, Enugu, Owerri, and Abakaliki; modernisation of the Onitsha River Port; a coordinated regional electricity strategy; and agro-industrial corridors across the five states.

Prof. Uwaleke also called for greater capital market literacy in the region, noting that few South East companies are listed on the Nigerian Exchange despite many having reached sufficient scale to access public markets.

He acknowledged significant hurdles, including political fragmentation among governors of different parties, security concerns, and weak project preparation capacity, but maintained that with strong governance and a shared economic vision, the capital market could serve as “the bridge between the South East’s enormous potential and its future economic transformation.”