By Gabriel Ameh
ABUJA — Stakeholders have urged Nigeria to draw lessons from China’s experience in poverty reduction and adapt relevant aspects of its development model to address the country’s persistent poverty challenges.
The call was made on Tuesday in Abuja at a one-day workshop on “Nigeria’s Poverty Alleviation and China’s Development Modules,” organised by the Diplomatic Correspondents’ Association of Nigeria (DICAN).
The workshop, themed “Nigeria’s Poverty Alleviation Efforts: Adopting China Modules and Its Relevance in a New Era — The Place of Policy Makers, Development Partners and Diplomatic Reporters,” examined how Nigeria could adapt lessons from China’s development experience to tackle poverty.
Speaking at the event, the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Yu Dunhai, said China had lifted more than 800 million people out of poverty since the launch of its reform and opening-up programme in 1978.
Dunhai, who was represented by the Counsellor, Economic and Commercial Office of the Chinese Embassy, Sun Xuekun, said China’s achievement accounted for more than 70 per cent of global poverty reduction.
He noted that the scale and speed of the achievement were significant, explaining that nearly 100 million rural residents were still living below the poverty line at the end of 2012, but all had been lifted out of poverty by the end of 2020.
“On average, more than 12 million people escaped poverty each year, equivalent to the population of a medium-sized country,” he said.
According to him, China also lifted 98.99 million rural poor residents, 832 impoverished counties and 128,000 impoverished villages out of poverty.
He attributed the progress to strong political commitment, targeted interventions, economic development, infrastructure investment and mechanisms designed to prevent people from falling back into poverty.
Dunhai said the Chinese government invested nearly 1.6 trillion yuan in special poverty alleviation funds and deployed more than three million officials and village work team members to establish a nationwide assistance network.
He explained that China moved away from generalised interventions to a more targeted approach by identifying poor households, assessing the causes of poverty and matching interventions with specific local needs.
The approach, he said, included the development of local industries, relocation of communities from inhospitable areas, ecological compensation, educational assistance and stronger social security.
It was also supported by investments in roads, water supply, electricity, telecommunications, education and healthcare.
Dunhai said China’s experience demonstrated that poverty could be overcome through sustained development, adding that the country had subsequently linked poverty reduction with rural revitalisation to consolidate the gains made.
He also urged Nigeria to explore opportunities created by China’s zero-tariff policy for African exports by strengthening local supply chains, improving product standards and expanding non-oil exports to the Chinese market.
The Chinese envoy further stressed the important role of journalists in development, saying they were not merely observers of government policies but had a responsibility to document progress, expose shortcomings and help citizens understand the impact of government and international development initiatives.
The workshop underscored the need for Nigeria to combine lessons from international development experiences with stronger domestic institutions, reliable data, accountability and sustained investment in human capital and infrastructure.
Participants also stressed that adapting China’s experience to Nigeria would require policies that take into account the country’s unique economic, social and institutional realities rather than simply replicating the Chinese model.
