Nigeria has been urged to adopt key elements of China’s poverty-reduction model to tackle poverty, unemployment and inequality.

The call was made yesterday in Abuja at a one-day workshop organised by the Diplomatic Correspondents’ Association of Nigeria (DICAN), with the theme, ‘Nigeria’s Poverty Alleviation Efforts: Adopting China’s Models and its Relevance in a New Era — The Place of Policymakers, Development Partners and Diplomatic Reporters’.

The Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Yu Dunhai, said China’s experience demonstrated that sustained commitment, targeted interventions and development-focused policies could deliver large-scale poverty reduction.

Represented by the Counsellor, Economic and Commercial Office of the Chinese Embassy, Sun Xuekun, the Ambassador said China had lifted more than 800 million people out of poverty since the launch of its reform and opening-up programme in 1978, accounting for more than 70 per cent of global poverty reduction.

Dunhai said nearly 100 million rural Chinese remained below the poverty line at the end of 2012, but all were lifted out of poverty by the end of 2020.

He added that China lifted 98.99 million rural poor residents, 832 impoverished counties, and 128,000 impoverished villages out of poverty during the period.

According to him, China’s approach was anchored on strong leadership and accountability, targeted poverty alleviation, sustainable economic development and long-term measures to prevent people from falling back into poverty.

The Chinese official said the 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 support poor communities.

He explained that China moved from generalised interventions to precision-based assistance by identifying poor households, determining the causes of their poverty and designing interventions around local needs.