On Thursday, January 3, 2025, Chief Ben I. Okoye (Onwa di ebube Nnewi), and his siblings held the funeral rites, comprised of a burial service and a reception at Umuenem Otolo Nnewi, Anambra State, for their mother, the late Mrs. Mercy Njideka Okoye (nee Okoli), who died last year, aged 92 years.
However, owing to unavoidable circumstances, Nigeria and Entrepreneurship: Summit & Honors (NESH) Foundation couldn’t attend the funeral rites, but was able to pay a condolence visit to Chief Ben Okoye on 5th January, 2025, at his country home in Umuenem Otolo Nnewi.
Okoye, founder, DSV Pipetronix Ltd, a leading oil and gas services company in Nigeria, and the key promoter of the $3.2bn Brass Fertilizer and Petrochemical Project, located in Bayelsa State, is a good friend of NESH Foundation, and a dogged and resilient Nigerian Entrepreneur.
The Brass Fertilizer and Petrochemical Project is one of the biggest projects of its kind in Nigeria being promoted by a Nigerian entrepreneur, and NESH Foundation has been supporting the project from inception because of its enormous impact on, and benefit to the Nigerian economy.
However, the business environment has been very challenging to the project promoters and many entrepreneurs would have given up on the project, but Chief Ben Okoye has not wavered in his commitment to see that the project is actualized.
It is our hope that the federal government, Bayelsa State government, gas suppliers, financiers, and the local community where the project is sited would play their respective roles to ensure that the project is completed on schedule.
NESH Foundation condoles with Chief Okoye and his dear wife, Ifeoma; his siblings and all the loved ones mama left behind.
Our suggestion to Onwa di ebube, is that one of the greatest tributes he can pay to his late dear mother is to see to the completion of the Brass Fertilizer and Petrochemical project, and in her memory, name the main entrance to the complex, MRS NJIDEKA OKOYE BOULEVARD.
That way, she will ever be remembered for giving birth to a very dogged and resilient African entrepreneur, Chief Ben I. Okoye (Onwa di ebube, Nnewi.
May Ma Njideka Okoye’s soul continue to rest in perfect peace !!!
– Emeka Ugwuoju
