By Chioma Iruke
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has revealed its intentions to spend the sum of $110million on rural roads, transport infrastructure, water/sanitation and agricultural productivity in Kano State, northern Nigeria.
President of the bank, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina disclosed this when he paid a condolence visit to the State Governor, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, over the death of Sani Dangote, at the Government House in Kano over the weekend.
According to Adesina, “We are using $110million in Kano State for our programme on Special Agricultural Industrial Processing Zone. We are in all having about $563million that will be dedicated to that project in various states of Nigeria.
“With this $110million that will be used for Kano State just imagine what we could do. Investing in rural roads, transport infrastructure, water and sanitation, and we also invest in agricultural productivity to raise production of food.
“And we are processing and adding value as well as thousands of jobs because of that.”
While commending the transformation of the State by the Ganduje administration, Adesina said he was pleased to discuss with the governor around the work of African Development Bank in the state.
He said: “This programme of hundreds of dollars will help develop consolidated infrastructure in rural areas.
“That will allow private sector food and agribusiness companies to reduce the amount of losses they have, create more competitive value chain, transform the rural areas from the zones of misery to the zone of economic prosperity, and to increase the amount of resources the state has.”
In his response, Ganduje thanked the AfDB President for the new development, and assured him of his total support and cooperation for 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.
“Health services are excellent and aimed at reducing medical tourism abroad, and where you can have security agencies using technology,” he said.
