AfDB to spend $110m for rural roads, agriculture in Kano

African Development Bank (AfDB) is set to spend the sum of $110 million for rural roads, transport infrastructure, water and sanitation and agricultural productivity in Kano State.

This was disclosed by the President of African Development Bank, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, when he paid a condolence visit to the governor of Kano state, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, over the death of Sani Dangote, at Africa House, Government House, Kano state North-Western Nigeria.

He said the financial agency is using $110m in Kano for programmes on Special Agricultural Industrial Processing Zone, which is out of the $563m dedicated to similar projects in various states across Nigeria.

“With this $110m that will be used for Kano state, just imagine what we could do. Investing in rural roads, transport infrastructure, water, sanitation and agricultural productivity to raise production of food.”

We are also processing and adding value as well as creating lots of hundreds of thousands of jobs,” said Dr Adesina.

He said the programme, which is in hundreds of US Dollars, will help to develop and consolidate infrastructure in rural areas.

This will allow private sector food and agribusiness companies to reduce the number of losses they have, create a more competitive value chain, transform the rural areas from the zones of misery to the zone of economic prosperity. And increase the number of resources the state has,” he added.

He commended Governor Ganduje for the transformation of the Kano state, stressing that the visitation was an opportunity to discuss with him the work of the African Development Bank in the state.

Governor Ganduje thanked the AfDB President for the new development and assured his total support and cooperation for the successful implementation of the project at all levels.

“This is what we mean by genuine development when institutions are strengthened and individuals or collections of individuals are rightly directed,” said Ganduje.

Governor Ganduje also Commended the AfDB President for appreciating development in the state.

“We thank you for appreciating our modest development since we came into office in 2015.”

“I was Commissioner for Works, Housing and Transport for six years during Military administration. So I am conversant with the Master Plan of Kano. And I am conversant with the features of Mega Cities, Smart Cities.”

“So my dream is to promote Kano into a Mega City. And a Mega-City is not only a collection of population. It is a collection of an environment where things are working, where traffic flows, where health services are excellent and aimed at reducing medical tourism abroad and where you can have security using technology,” explained Ganduje.