Notable people in Anambra State

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• Professor Chinua Achebe – native of Ogidi and best known for the classic, Things Fall Apart; first African writer whose books are standard curricula in schools and universities across the world.
• Chimamanda Adichie – writer, won the Orange Prize for Fiction (2007) and a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (2008)
• Dora Akunyili – ex-head of NAFDAC, and former (17 December 2008 – 15 December 2010) Minister of Information won international awards for cleansing Nigeria of the scourge of fake drugs^{[citation needed]}
• Emeka Anyaoku – first black secretary-general of the Commonwealth and recipient of South Africa's Order of the Companions of Oliver Reginald Tambo for his role in initiating talks between the apartheid state and the African National Congress
• Cardinal Francis Arinze – once considered a potential Pope
• Ukpabi Asika – political scientist and administrator from Onitsha; East Central State administrator during and after the Nigerian Civil War
• Adaeze Atuegwu - author and disability inclusive advocate 
• Nnamdi Azikiwe Owelle of Onitsha – first president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
• Phyno (Chibuzo Nelson Azubuike) - popular Igbo rapper
• Chinwe Chukwuogo-Roy MBE – London-based artist; first black artist to paint a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II; one of the UK Women of the Year in 2002 and 2003; represented the UK at the Council of Europe; in 2009 she was made an MBE

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• Chief Oliver De Coque – popular Nigerian highlife musician and guitarist
• Professor Kenneth Dike – pre-eminent scholar of African History and native of Awka; first indigenous vice-chancellor of the University of Ibadan and founder of the National Archives
• Cyprian Ekwensi – MFR, writer of international repute
• Dr. Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme – from Oko town; politician; architect; first executive vice-president of Nigeria, serving 1979–1983
• Philip Emeagwali – winner of the 1989 Gordon Bell Prize for Supercomputing
• Buchi Emecheta Author and Sociologist
• Bonaventure Enemali – commissioner for Youth Empowerment and Creative Economy
• Professor Ben Enwonwu – native of Onitsha; first Nigerian sculptor of international repute with artwork gracing the United Nations headquarters
• Ken Erics – multi-award-winning Nollywood actor, producer, CEO of KEN ERICS Productions, writer and occasional musician.^{[citation needed]}
• Chukwuemeka Ezeife – former Governor of Anambra State and Presidential Adviser on Political Matters to President
• Flavour (Chinedu Okoli) – popular singer and songwriter from Umunze

• Cletus Ibeto – industrialist and businessman from Nnewi
• Chukwuemeka Ike – writer of many books including Toads forSsupper, Bottled Leopard, and Expo 77; hails from Ndikelionwu in Anambra State; was the traditional ruler Ikelionwu XI; first registrar of the West African Examination Council
• Godwin Maduka – doctor, businessman, philanthropist, founder of Las Vegas Pain Institute and Medical Center
• Chinwoke Mbadinuju- Former Governor of Anambra State

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• Hon. Ifeanyi Chudy Momah– lawyer and legislator; Honorable Member representing Ihiala in the Federal House of Representatives
• Ebube Muonso – religious leader
• Dr Chris Ngige- Former Governor of Anambra State
• Flora Nwapa Author and pioneer Africa woman writer in Igboland
• Emeka Nwokedi – conductor and music director
• Professor Humphrey Nwobu Nwosu – professor of political science; former NEC chairma; conducted the freest, fairest and most credible election so far in Nigeria
• Oseloka H. Obaze (born 1955) – diplomat, politician and author
• Professor Chike Obi – mathematician famous for his work on non-differential equations; won the 1985 ICTP Prize  and developed a special solution for Fermat's Last Theorem;
• Peter Obi- Former Governor of Anambra State
• Lieutenant-General Chikadibia Isaac Obiakor – appointed as military advisor, Assistant Secretary General Office of Military Affairs, UN Office of Peacekeeping Operations, New York; previously served as commander of the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) Artillery Brigade in Liberia in 1996 and 1997
• Emeka Offor – chairman of Chrome Group
• Dim Emeka Ojukwu – native of Nnewi, the leader of the secessionist Biafra Republic
• Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu – native of Nnewi; first Nigerian millionaire and first president of the Nigerian Stock Exchange
• Dr. Senator Chuba Wilberforce Okadigbo (1941–2003) – native of Ogbunike; president of the Senate of Nigeria

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• Professor Uche Okeke – native of Nimo; one of the foremost Nigerian fine artists; founder of the Uli movement
• Ifeoma Okoye Novelist
• Chief P.N. Okeke-Ojiudu – politician and Businessman and the first minister of agriculture in the Nigerian first republic
• Pius Okigbo, CON– world-renowned economist; first economic advisor to the Federal government of Nigeria (1960–1962); first Nigerian Ambassador to the European Community; renowned for bringing to light over $12 billion missing in oil windfall receipts from the Central Bank of Nigeria during the first Gulf War
• Amobi Okoye – youngest American football player to play for the NFL (2004), currently a free agent
• Professor Samuel Okoye – black Africa's first PhD in Radio Astronomy; with Antony Hewish of the University of Cambridge, discovered the radio source of Crab Nebula neutron star
• Chinyere Stella Okunna – first Nigerian female professor in mass communication
• Azuka Okwuosa – former Anambra State Commissioner for Works and Transport
• Azikiwe Peter Onwualu – former director general and chief executive officer of the Raw Materials Research and Development Council
• Chi Onwurah – British Labour Party politician, elected at the 2010 general election as the Member of Parliament for Newcastle-upon-Tyne Central, becoming the first female British MP of African origin

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• Allen Onyema – Chairman of Air Peace
• Oscar N. Onyema – OON, chief executive officer of the Nigerian Stock Exchange and chairman of Central Securities Clearing System
• Nwafor Orizu – hails from Nnewi, Nnewi South; first Senate President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
• Osita Osadebe – popular Nigerian highlife musician; holds the Nigerian record for the highest selling album
• P-Square (Peter and Paul Okoye) – Nigerian music duo consisting of twin brothers from Ifitedunu
• Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo – famous economist who spearheaded Nigerian economic reform from 1999 to 2008; ex-head of the Central Bank of Nigeria
• Blessed Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi (born in Aguleri, Anambra State, 1903 – died Leicester, England, 1964) – ordained a Roman Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Onitsha, Nigeria; later a Cistercian monk at Mount Saint Bernard Monastery in England; Pope John Paul II beatified him in 1998
• Fabian Udekwu (1928–2006) – professor of surgery and trailblazer of open heart surgery in Africa
• Chief Jerome Udoji – from Ozubulu social reformer; first African to be made a District Officer by the Colonial Administration
• Chuka Umunna – British Labour Party Member of Parliament for Streatham constituency

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