Former Anambra governor Peter Obi has highlighted how British banks extended him loans based on his educational qualifications rather than physical collateral.
Obi made the remarks on Friday while addressing members of the Nigerian community in Cape Town, South Africa, ahead of the Spier Dialogue 2026.
“I lived in the UK, my brother. I did business in the UK. Very successful business. I went to the bank. I told them the schools I was from, Cambridge and Oxford, and they gave me money,” Obi said.3bd55b
“They didn’t ask me about my parents. They gave me this loan based on my intellectual capital, and I paid them back,” he added.
The presidential aspirant on the Nigeria Democratic Congress platform contrasted this with practices in Nigeria. “In my country, I wouldn’t get that type of loan. They would have asked me to go and bring my dead mother and father, their properties and all of that,” he said.
Obi used the example to underscore his vision for governance focused on building functional institutions and valuing human capital over transactional politics.
“People always believe that every politician is the same because they believe governance is all about transactions. What we want is people that will make the society work,” he stated.
The comments come as Obi continues engagements on good governance and economic inclusion across Africa.
