Re: Kano light rail project

In his article titled “Re: Kano light rail project” published in Daily Trust of Tuesday, December 20, 2016, Bello Muhammad Sharada clearly portrays himself as either a political trouble loser or those who relied on Kano-based radio political warriors (yanbaka) as a source of information. I can vividly recall that during the last administration, a […]

In his article titled “Re: Kano light rail project” published in Daily Trust of Tuesday, December 20, 2016, Bello Muhammad Sharada clearly portrays himself as either a political trouble loser or those who relied on Kano-based radio political warriors (yanbaka) as a source of information.

I can vividly recall that during the last administration, a report was submitted to the Kano State Government on how to uplift Kano to a mega city, by ‘Ra’ayi Initiatives’, a nongovernmental organization and the committee was co-chaired by Abba Gumel, a Professor of Mathematics. The light rail was the top priority in the said document and proposed private public partnership as the source of financing the project.

To actualize the said dream, the Kano State government under the leadership of Ganduje scouted for partnership, and luckily netted China Railway Construction Group and the project is to be financed by Bank of China equivalent of Central Bank of Nigeria. The project is estimated to cost $1,850,839,098 and 15% would be locally sourced by the Kano State and the remaining 85% would come from the Bank of China as agreed by the both parties, which is more of a private finance project.

It was estimated in 2008 that Nigeria needed about $ 100 billion to address only four infrastructure areas considered critical; power – $18-20 billion; Road – $14 billion; Oil and Gas – $60 billion; Rail – $10 billion. Considering the current economic reality, the chunk of these expenses should come from public private partnership.

Contrary to his claims, the project is divided into three; the first phase is to be completed within two years with an estimated cost of $750m with moratorium of two years, and to pay back 85% in 15 years, possibly from the proceed generated and other sources. Same would be applied to second and the third phases at the sum of $550m each.

The writer also brand the project as white elephant, a terms derives from a story associated with the ‘King of Siam’, and perceived to be an investment whose cost of upkeep is not in line with how useful or valuable the item is. Bello should know that Kano rail project would generate jobs in six digits, bring more revenue to the state, and ease transportation of goods, which would surely increase the life span of our roads and attracts more investments to the state.

Auwal A. Dankano, Kano