Obasanjo Suggests Ways to Alleviate Poverty in Nigeria

James Sowole in Abeokuta

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday said the best way to get Nigerians out of abject poverty is by turning the country’s growing population into an asset.

Obasanjo, who lamented that over 100 million Nigerians are living in poverty, insisted that only investment in human development and education would turn Nigeria’s population from a liability to an asset.
He said this in a keynote address titled: “Importance of Network in Life and Business,” during the launch of the Gateway chapter of Business Network International (BNI) in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

Obasanjo said: “We lay emphasis on our natural resources and when we talk of our natural resources, we are talking of mine, oil and gas, gold, whatever we can find in the bush or under the ground. But for me, our most important natural resource is human beings.

 “By the year 2050, we will be the third largest country in the world with a population of well over 450 million. Only China and India will be larger than us in population. That can be an asset and it can be a liability.
“I won’t say more than that for now because that requires a whole day to discuss how not to make it a liability, what we have to do to make our population an asset.

“I like the goals that you have set for yourself in BNI in Nigeria, to support 25,000 businesses, to support one million families and if you take an average of one family being five – father, mother and three children, we are talking of five million people.

“Well, you may say, give a million out of 230 million people, so how much is that? But it means a lot. In a situation where over 100 million of us are in abject poverty if five million can be raised out of poverty, it means we are doing a lot.”
He commended BNI for its plan to support over 25,000 businesses and one million families through growth in employment and value creation and to contribute N650 billion annually to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Obasanjo said, BNI’s plan would go a long way in raising no fewer than five million Nigerians out of poverty.
The President of the Gateway chapter of BNI, Ronke Daniel, disclosed that the organisation had been supporting business owners in more than 70 countries to grow.

Daniel noted that the objective of the organisation is to grow businesses and empower operators of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMSEs) to reach their maximum potential.