Vice Presidential Candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, in 2019 elections, and former governor of Anambra State, Mr Peter Obi, has asserted that borrowing progressive economic ideas from China will be more beneficial to Nigeria than taking public loans to pump into the economy.
Former Governor Obi made assertion at the 60th Founder’s Day Lecture of University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
He observed that China had gone through different stages of national development to arrive at this present level.
He was of the opinion therefore, that it would pay Nigeria better to copy China’s economic development template rather than running to them for loans.
Obi argued that China that could only boast of a GDP per capita of 960 dollars in the year 2000, had grown to a GDP per capita of 10275 dollars in 2019, with a High Human Development Index of 0.798 in 2019 as against 0.594 in year 2000.
He posited that the huge economic development seen in China is as a result of huge investment in MSME sector which drastically reduced unemployment and increased government revenue.
According to the former governor, China had planned to create 50 million jobs from 2015 to 2020, which is 10 million jobs annually, and that it is religiously following the plan year-on-year.
Obi stated that if Nigeria emulated China’s economic development plan, it would pay the country better than taking loans which could be mismanaged.
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