Africa: A Lesson from China Industrial Revolution, by Ibrahim Bature

China opened up their economy in 1978, meaning they changed from a full socialist economy to an open socialist market economy. These reforms led to significant economic growth for China within successive decades, and they are considered to be one of the economic miracles in human history.

What does China do to attract foreign investors from all over the world?
The best strategy they used was to reduce electricity costs, provide foreign investors with the cheapest labour, allow exceptions to standard customs procedures, and allow tax exemptions or tax incentives. These actions attracted multibillion-dollar investments from all over the world. So many investors relocate their production factories to China.
Over time, the Chinese workers from those foreign companies learned skills, and the government supported them to open their small-scale investments. The rest is history, as in 2010, China overtook Japan as the world’s second-largest economy by nominal GDP before overtaking the United States in 2016 as the world’s largest economy by GDP (PPP).

China and Singapore remain the best examples for African countries to follow.

I still wonder who the economic advisers of President Bola Ahmad Tinubu are!
What is happening in Nigeria recently is directly opposite to the secret of China’s economic development history. Tinubu removed subsidies, raised the customs clearance fee, increased taxes, and most recently, increased electricity costs.
People like us are still wondering if all these are magical Tinubu economic policies or just policies planned to continue placing Nigerians in daily suffering.

Malam Ibrahim Bature,
Ph.D Scholar.
President, Bilateral Education Agreement Scholars in China, and Vice President, Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation (NIDO) China North.