With the just concluded Kaduna Economic and Investment Summit and subsequent ground breaking ceremony of the N30b biggest West Africa poultry/hatchery establish by Olam group, Kaduna State is set to be Nigeria’s business hub for foreign and local investors. MIDAT JOSEPH writes.
Kaduna is Nigeria’s third largest state, behind Lagos and Kano, with a diverse population of 8m, land mass, many institutions of higher learning and mineral resources.
It is a known fact that before the coming of Mallam Nasir El-Rufai administration, Kaduna State which used to be the commercial centre of the Northern Nigeria during the hay days of textiles industries, had lost it glory even before the advent of democracy in 1999.
The State is confronted with immense poverty, poor health indices and high unemployment.
This is because no investor was interested in investing largely due to the non-availability of the needed incentives, coupled with the total infrastructural decay, lack of security among other issues.
Even the few existing companies such as the Flour mills, ginger and tomotoes processing companies among others were coomatosed due to long years of mismanagement.
Since the collapse of these industries, Kaduna, hitherto became a purely civil service state, making infrastructural development difficult for the previous administration in view of the heavy wage bill from workers.
Faced by this challenges and the reality of continue dwindling in the price of oil as well as the sharp decline in revenue accruing to the state, Governor El-Rufai and his team drew up a strategic development plan to look inwards.
One of such plans was to assembled investors both local and foreign to a two day economic and investment summit with the view of showcasing the potentials of the state to the world.
Declaring the summit open, Governor El-Rufai said the state has the aspiration and determination to be better. And that “by hard work, honest endeavour and wise choices we can deliver jobs, inclusive growth and prosperity for our people.”
El-Rufai took time to inform the mammoth crowd how Kaduna is blessed with lots of natural resources including gold, saying “the amount of Gold in Birnin Gwari Local Government area is larger than that of South Africa and there are scientific evidence to that’’
He said preparations are under way to reform the local miners to operate in the gold mine company that will be established in Brinin Gwari.
The governor also said the new vision of his administration is to make Kaduna a state programmed for abundant investments, economic opportunities and prosperity.
He also said the state government has put all mechanism in place to ensure adequate peace and security , good governance , improved quality of lives, and social inclusion .
According to him, the goal of the organizing the summit is to create a platform for discourse with a view to achieve inclusive economic growth and socio-economic transformation of the state that will translate into substantial improvements in the quality of citizens lives , through higher productivity and competitiveness .
“The promise of good governance will be curtailed in what it delivers if there are no investments, no drivers of growth, no jobs.
“Kaduna State is open for business because our people are eager for better outcomes in their lives, and they are ready for the opportunities of enterprise.
“We were elected on a platform of change, anchored on our Restoration Programme. To effect change by means of restoration is not an exercise in nostalgia. It is to restore the values that made our state such a champion of industry and enterprise in the past and marry them with the resources of the present to produce a new dynamism. We are implementing programmes in our core agenda areas of Education, Health, Agriculture, Infrastructure and Security,”
This is good news for our state. Prayers is that it'll be more than talk.
ReplyDeleteThis is good news for our state. Prayers is that it'll be more than talk.
ReplyDelete