By Michael Ovat
Thousands of entrepreneurs, civil servants, career professionals and young Nigerians filled the Anabel Event Centre along the Enugu/Onitsha Expressway in Awka on Saturday as the Business, Balance and Beyond Summit made its first appearance in the Southeast, delivering a full day of personal development conversations on business, health, well-being and relationships.
The summit, themed Beyond the Bank: Redefining Wealth, Worth and Well-being, drew attendees from across Anambra, Enugu, Abia, Imo and Ebonyi States, with a free children’s corner provided on the day to remove barriers to attendance for parents.
In her welcome address, the convener of the summit, Dr. Ella Chioma Ezeadilieje, widely known as Veronica’s Daughter, delivered what many in attendance described as one of the most honest opening remarks they had heard at a public event, drawing from her own story of building an influential personal brand from a series of personal Facebook posts.
“I call myself the accidental influencer,” she told the crowd. “I never set out to influence anybody. I never set out to become anything. I was just sharing my stories on Facebook, writing about my daily experiences, writing about my mother Veronica. Little did I know that was going to be the start of something much bigger than myself.”
Dr. Ezeadilieje used her journey as a mirror to challenge Southeast businesses on their relationship with digital visibility, drawing a sharp distinction between being online and being visible.
“I do not say the Southeast is not online,” she said. “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 cited her experience preparing for the summit as evidence of the gap, revealing that it was difficult to find quality Southeast vendors online despite the region being home to exceptional products and craftsmanship.
“I went to the Onitsha market and I was shocked at the quality and the price of what I saw,” she said. “These are things that if they were online, in that power, in that number, they would sell out in days. But we like hard work. We are yet to learn about smart work.”
The convener structured the day around three pillars she described as the core of the B³ experience: health, business, and relationships, the latter being what she identified as the most neglected by the audience based on a real-time poll conducted at the start of the event.
“We asked you what area you are most interested in: health, wealth or relationship,” she said. “Almost everybody wrote wealth. 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 noted that the average Nigerian life expectancy stood at 55 years, a figure she described as unacceptably low, and pointed to the free health checks available outside the venue as one of the summit’s practical interventions.
“A lot of us will never walk into a hospital until something is wrong,” she said. “We are more reactive than proactive.”
On the business pillar, Dr. Ezeadilieje highlighted digital tools and access to funding as the two areas where Southeast entrepreneurs needed the most structured support, pointing to summit partner Bumpa as a practical solution for inventory management and business structure.
The event featured a five million naira grant opportunity for qualifying entrepreneurs, as well as a speaker lineup that included Nollywood actress and humanitarian Rechael Okonkwo, known for her role as Nkoli Nwa Nsukka; the Billionaire Mechanic and Managing Director of Pamtech Group, Engr. Chidomere Ndubuisi; and celebrated Healthertainer Dr. Kelechi Okoro.
Panel sessions, moderated by media strategist and SurThrive Media founder Dr. Chioma Ezenwafor and Ms Myra Nwanneka Bright, featured the convener’s husband, Chief Joseph Ezeadilieje, Onitsha Business Hangout Convener Ifeanyi Ogbaji, Arc. Chukwudi Ezenwa, Chairman of GSS Group, Prof. Olusegun Sogbesan, Director of the Onitsha Business School, and Kelvin Onovo, Founder of Yagazie Property, among others.
Sponsors included Tiger Foods, Bumpa, Union Bank, Studio 24 and Power Oil. The Anambra State Signage and Advertisement Agency also announced a strategic partnership with the organising team.
Dr. Ezeadilieje commended Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo of Anambra State for his One Youth Two Skills empowerment initiative, describing it as aligned with the personal development mission the B³ Summit carries.
The B³ Summit launched in Port Harcourt in 2024 and the Anambra Edition marks its first expansion into the Southeast. Registration and online access for future editions are available at www.businessbalancebeyond.org.
