Kaduna needs $65.5bn for infrastructure

Naisr El-Rufai, governor of Kaduna state, says the state requires $65.5 billion to address its infrastructure challenges over the next 30 years.

While unveiling the Kaduna infrastructure master plan (2018-2050), El-Rufai said the long-term infrastructure master plan summarised the infrastructure target of the state aimed at providing job opportunities and making lives better for the people.

“The breakdown of the future infrastructural developments between now to 2050, include the transportation sector which would require N8 trillion while N5.1 billion would be required annually in the education sector to build about 9,006 schools including tertiary institutions.

“Other sectors include, the health system which would require N158 billion, while N100 billion yearly is targeted for the water sector; agriculture would require N53 billion, and 5,000 housing units would be developed annually all within the time frame of 2018-2050.”

According to him, the administration had attracted investments into the state in the last two years, with 79% coming outside the country, due to the low percentage of domestic investment.

He said the government would focus on attracting businesses to Kaduna by providing skilled workforce

“To encourage domestic investment in the state, government’s first priority is to build human capital by engaging in different activities where the young people are willing to be employed in businesses,” he said.

El-Rufa’i disclosed that the government expects some of its investments to bear fruits before the next edition of the summit.

He listed the investments to include Vilisco textile park, Arfa dairy farms and ranches, Kaduna automobile village, Green economic zone, Solar power project, Dangote-PAN assembly plant among others.