Obi says at the heart of poverty, is capital formation, and you can’t talk about capital formation without savings.
By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
Labour Party Presidential Candidate, Peter Obi, has explained how he will defeat poverty if elected at the February 25, 2023 polls.
Obi gave the explanation while speaking at Chatham House, the famous foreign policy think tank in the United Kingdom.
While reacting and addressing a question on how he could fight poverty as a ‘stingy man,’ Obi argued that at the heart of poverty reduction is ‘capital formation.’
Referencing his stint as governor of Anambra State between 2005 and 2013, Obi said despite investing in health, education and infrastructure, for which he warned awards, he still ensured that money was set aside for future needs.
He said: “People have been telling me that if I become president, the issue of being…, what word they used ‘stingy.’
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“Let me say it publicly that people don’t know what it is all about. At the heart of poverty, is capital formation. And you can’t talk about capital formation without savings. Even in the most developed world,…..that is why I said that Japan holds the highest amount of US Treasury. We have no capital formation, low productivity, and low income.
“What I was doing as governor, I was the best governor in millennium development goals by the UNDP. You can go and check that. I won a prize for the rated road network. I won Bill Gate Prize back to back on health. You can go and see what I did in health. Build from scratch, teaching hospitals, improved number one in education. And above all, I was able to save because I believe in the future generation.”