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When development plans receive global attention
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- Written by Sule Ya’u Sule
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Kano State is beginning to reap the fruits of the modernization agenda being pursued meticulously by the Malam Ibrahim Shekarau Administration. At two different forums this past month, foreign and local investors, as well as financially able Nigerian professionals in the Diaspora, had cause to take a closer and informed look at the quickening pace of infrastructural development in Kano State. Their verdict? The Shekarau Administration is pursuing the right development agenda which in due course would completely transform the socio-economic landscape of the state.
Investors are not famous for cheerleading investment road shows if they cannot invest their money where their heart is. The Middle Eastern investors who gathered to listen to His Excellency’s presentation on the benefits of investing in Kano at the recently concluded Forum in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, knew they would be in good company given the tradition of hospitality, deep cultural heritage, population and infrastructural amenities which the state government is putting in place presently. The Federal Government invited Malam, alongside seven other State Governors deemed to have achieved recorded indisputable milestones in infrastructural developments in their domain, to showcase the investment potentials of their state during the “Stating the Case for Investing in Nigeria” Forum at the Millennium Hotel in Abu Dhabi. Led by Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, the Nigerian delegation put up a superlative presentation sufficient to convince investors that Nigeria is a lucrative investment destination and for several reasons.
Take Kano state for example. The Shekarau Administration is pursuing an aggressive program of transforming the state from a commercial centre to the economic hub of Africa. The private sector driven, all-purpose Kanawa Trade Centre, a brainchild of the Shekarau Government, not only signposts a growing confidence on the state’s economic potentials by the Nigerian business community but has emerged the largest single vote cast in support of the Administration’s commitment to improve the climate and infrastructures of doing business in the state. The Kanawa Trade Centre, planned as Africa’s biggest commercial project, is the cornerstone of the larger Kano Economic City designed to create a trade, tourism and business hub which will redefine the way business is done in Africa. The Kanawa Business Centre, on completion, will have 15,000 retail shops, a World Trade Centre with twin 20 storey towers, 78 warehouses of various dimensions, space for 7000 cars, a five star hotel with modern conference facilities, restaurants, trailer parks and amusement parks.
To further boost business in the tourism and hospitality sector in Nigeria’s most populated state, State Government has leased the Magwan Hotel and Restaurant complex to Protea Hotels to develop and administer. An Arab investor has committed about N6billion into developing another five-star hotel in Kofar Nasarawa, just besides the ICT Park.
At the Abu Dhabi Investors’ Forum, Malam gave a summary of the agenda he is pursuing in repositioning Kano’s business and investment climate. The Administration is reconstructing Kano’s industrial estates and provisioning them with good road networks, water and security. The processes of land transaction and mortgage finance have been relaxed and local industrialists are receiving assistance from Government to access cheaper funds. Urban and socio-economic infrastructures are getting the desired uplift. This year, Shekarau Government is committing N16billion to the reconstruction, expansion and upgrading of 15 major roads and other major economic crossroads with the Kano Central Business District under its Roadmap Program for Economic Development. The popular economic arteries – Zoo Road to Shagari Quarters Road; Gidan Murtala to Kofar Kabuga [BUK Road]; Club Road; Bello Road; Niger Street; Post Office Road; Bank Road; Civic Centre Road; Lagos Street; Airport Road and Murtala Mohammed Way, are all being expanded into six lanes with gutters, pedestrian way and bus stops.
The challenge of providing the Kano population with portable water has been accepted with the commissioning of the 150million liters per day Tamburawa, the reactivation of the 200million liters per day Challawa Water Scheme and the 75million liters per day Watari Regional water Scheme which was done alongside the expansion of the five modular regional water treatment plants.
The State Government is also wisely investing the $30million it will receive from Pfizer, in settlement off the TROVAN Drug trial deaths. Following the recommendations of its panel of experts, Government is devoting the money solely towards tackling critical areas of healthcare delivery in the state to complement its own laudable interventions. It plans to establish, with the fund, a Centre for Disease Control comprising of a world-class Diagnostics Centre, an Ultra Modern Laboratory and a dental centre to be located within a General Hospital.
With an international airport, an inland dry port, a free trade zone and the recent award of contract by the Federal Government for the reactivation of the Lagos – Kano Rail line, Kano will become the new business hub of Africa.
Using his popular administration in Kano as a case study, Malam explained, to the loud cheers and admiration of his highly cerebral audience, how honest and transparent leadership can improve good governance, popular participation and trust. According to him, people want their governments to be led by altruistic leaders, not corrupt ones, they want accountability, not corruption, and they want leaders who will be compassionate in power, not power-drunk ones. Once leaders are honest and transparent, they will pay their taxes and contribute meaningfully to national development.
This was the same point, of humility and service, emphasized by Africa’s first Nobel Laurent Professor Wole Soyinka when he paid a solidarity visit to Governor Ibrahim Shekarau, the first of its kind to any sitting Nigerian President.
The Convention, with the theme: “Value Orientation and Giving Back to Our Alma Mater” was an excellent forum for the exchange of ideas on contemporary issues of leadership and good governance among Nigerians of very diverse backgrounds. Malam’s presentation, especially of the economic potentials of Kano State and the effects of good governance in raising the moral capital for social mobilization, was well received and applauded.
His Excellency also used the opportunity to sign a proclamation with the Prairie View A&M University to boost agricultural production in Kano State. The agreement aims at facilitating exchange programs, capacity building and research and development in agricultural production. Malam called for increased linkages between Nigerian and American institutions to enhance scholarship and facilitate networking between the students and their respective lecturers. He expressed gratitude to the University authorities for their desire to partner with the State Government to enhance food production, agricultural development and research. The Governor also expressed satisfaction with the aims and objectives of the partnership which he hoped would help human development and grow the economy. He pledged to use the platform provided by the agreement to revitalize agriculture and expressed optimism that the partnership would expose farmers in Kano to new farming technology so as to enhance production and food security.
Kano is ready for investment, this is the central message Malam took to Abu Dhabi and to Houston. His Administration is working round the clock to ensure the completion of projects to enhance the state’s economic status.
Sule is Director, Press, to the Kabo State Governor
Articles
When development plans receive global attention
Category: Comments Written by Sule Ya’u Sule Hits: 706
Kano State is beginning to reap the fruits of the modernization agenda being pursued meticulously by the Malam Ibrahim Shekarau Administration. At two different forums this past month, foreign and local investors, as well as financially able Nigerian professionals in the Diaspora, had cause to take a closer and informed look at the quickening pace of infrastructural development in Kano State. Their verdict? The Shekarau Administration is pursuing the right development agenda which in due course would completely transform the socio-economic landscape of the state.
Investors are not famous for cheerleading investment road shows if they cannot invest their money where their heart is. The Middle Eastern investors who gathered to listen to His Excellency’s presentation on the benefits of investing in Kano at the recently concluded Forum in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, knew they would be in good company given the tradition of hospitality, deep cultural heritage, population and infrastructural amenities which the state government is putting in place presently. The Federal Government invited Malam, alongside seven other State Governors deemed to have achieved recorded indisputable milestones in infrastructural developments in their domain, to showcase the investment potentials of their state during the “Stating the Case for Investing in Nigeria” Forum at the Millennium Hotel in Abu Dhabi. Led by Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, the Nigerian delegation put up a superlative presentation sufficient to convince investors that Nigeria is a lucrative investment destination and for several reasons.
Take Kano state for example. The Shekarau Administration is pursuing an aggressive program of transforming the state from a commercial centre to the economic hub of Africa. The private sector driven, all-purpose Kanawa Trade Centre, a brainchild of the Shekarau Government, not only signposts a growing confidence on the state’s economic potentials by the Nigerian business community but has emerged the largest single vote cast in support of the Administration’s commitment to improve the climate and infrastructures of doing business in the state. The Kanawa Trade Centre, planned as Africa’s biggest commercial project, is the cornerstone of the larger Kano Economic City designed to create a trade, tourism and business hub which will redefine the way business is done in Africa. The Kanawa Business Centre, on completion, will have 15,000 retail shops, a World Trade Centre with twin 20 storey towers, 78 warehouses of various dimensions, space for 7000 cars, a five star hotel with modern conference facilities, restaurants, trailer parks and amusement parks.
To further boost business in the tourism and hospitality sector in Nigeria’s most populated state, State Government has leased the Magwan Hotel and Restaurant complex to Protea Hotels to develop and administer. An Arab investor has committed about N6billion into developing another five-star hotel in Kofar Nasarawa, just besides the ICT Park.
At the Abu Dhabi Investors’ Forum, Malam gave a summary of the agenda he is pursuing in repositioning Kano’s business and investment climate. The Administration is reconstructing Kano’s industrial estates and provisioning them with good road networks, water and security. The processes of land transaction and mortgage finance have been relaxed and local industrialists are receiving assistance from Government to access cheaper funds. Urban and socio-economic infrastructures are getting the desired uplift. This year, Shekarau Government is committing N16billion to the reconstruction, expansion and upgrading of 15 major roads and other major economic crossroads with the Kano Central Business District under its Roadmap Program for Economic Development. The popular economic arteries – Zoo Road to Shagari Quarters Road; Gidan Murtala to Kofar Kabuga [BUK Road]; Club Road; Bello Road; Niger Street; Post Office Road; Bank Road; Civic Centre Road; Lagos Street; Airport Road and Murtala Mohammed Way, are all being expanded into six lanes with gutters, pedestrian way and bus stops.
The challenge of providing the Kano population with portable water has been accepted with the commissioning of the 150million liters per day Tamburawa, the reactivation of the 200million liters per day Challawa Water Scheme and the 75million liters per day Watari Regional water Scheme which was done alongside the expansion of the five modular regional water treatment plants.
The State Government is also wisely investing the $30million it will receive from Pfizer, in settlement off the TROVAN Drug trial deaths. Following the recommendations of its panel of experts, Government is devoting the money solely towards tackling critical areas of healthcare delivery in the state to complement its own laudable interventions. It plans to establish, with the fund, a Centre for Disease Control comprising of a world-class Diagnostics Centre, an Ultra Modern Laboratory and a dental centre to be located within a General Hospital.
With an international airport, an inland dry port, a free trade zone and the recent award of contract by the Federal Government for the reactivation of the Lagos – Kano Rail line, Kano will become the new business hub of Africa.
Using his popular administration in Kano as a case study, Malam explained, to the loud cheers and admiration of his highly cerebral audience, how honest and transparent leadership can improve good governance, popular participation and trust. According to him, people want their governments to be led by altruistic leaders, not corrupt ones, they want accountability, not corruption, and they want leaders who will be compassionate in power, not power-drunk ones. Once leaders are honest and transparent, they will pay their taxes and contribute meaningfully to national development.
This was the same point, of humility and service, emphasized by Africa’s first Nobel Laurent Professor Wole Soyinka when he paid a solidarity visit to Governor Ibrahim Shekarau, the first of its kind to any sitting Nigerian President.
The Convention, with the theme: “Value Orientation and Giving Back to Our Alma Mater” was an excellent forum for the exchange of ideas on contemporary issues of leadership and good governance among Nigerians of very diverse backgrounds. Malam’s presentation, especially of the economic potentials of Kano State and the effects of good governance in raising the moral capital for social mobilization, was well received and applauded.
His Excellency also used the opportunity to sign a proclamation with the Prairie View A&M University to boost agricultural production in Kano State. The agreement aims at facilitating exchange programs, capacity building and research and development in agricultural production. Malam called for increased linkages between Nigerian and American institutions to enhance scholarship and facilitate networking between the students and their respective lecturers. He expressed gratitude to the University authorities for their desire to partner with the State Government to enhance food production, agricultural development and research. The Governor also expressed satisfaction with the aims and objectives of the partnership which he hoped would help human development and grow the economy. He pledged to use the platform provided by the agreement to revitalize agriculture and expressed optimism that the partnership would expose farmers in Kano to new farming technology so as to enhance production and food security.
Kano is ready for investment, this is the central message Malam took to Abu Dhabi and to Houston. His Administration is working round the clock to ensure the completion of projects to enhance the state’s economic status.
Sule is Director, Press, to the Kabo State Governor