From:Femi Oyelola in Kaduna
Governor Uba Sani has revealed that his administration wouldn’t have achieved major successes within two and a half years without the support of President Bola Tinubu.
He announced that Kaduna State will be the first subnational to benefit from the $200 million Nigeria-China poultry project, the largest in sub-Saharan Africa, due to the president’s affection for the state.
‘’By the grace of God, in the next two months, we will be laying the foundation for the construction of the biggest poultry project in sub-Saharan Africa,’’ he stated.
According to the governor, the project will ‘create at least 350 direct jobs and 150,000 indirect jobs, and support about 10,000 small businesses within Kaduna State.’’
Governor Uba Sani shared this information when he hosted social media influencers for Iftar, the breaking of Ramadan fast, on Wednesday night.
During the event, he said Kaduna State would have a Light Rail system outside Lagos State, ‘because of the benevolence of President Bola Tinubu.’’
The governor also mentioned that the groundbreaking for the Light Rail project will take place in May and expressed gratitude to the influencers for their support.
He emphasized that the influencers are skilled professionals who have chosen to promote Kaduna State’s activities because of their passion for good governance.
Further, he stated his administration has achieved notable milestones in the last two and a half years, and these successes have been promoted by the influencers.
He noted that, in partnership with the Kuwait Development Fund, his administration has built about 104 schools to tackle the issue of out-of-school children.
Kaduna State has built 65 secondary schools and renovated over 2,300 classrooms,’’ he said, adding that ‘we are also working on building an additional 55 secondary schools.’’
He also announced plans to recruit at least 2,000 teachers for primary schools starting next month, with the effort continuing annually.
Reflecting on the achievements, he recalled that ‘when we came in, we had about 580,000 out-of-school children; today, by the grace of God, that number has been reduced to approximately 182,000.’’
The governor highlighted Kaduna’s leadership in skills development, mentioning the establishment of vocational institutions in Soba, Rigachukun, and Zangon Kataf.
He also relayed that the Minister of Education stated these institutions are better equipped than any federal university of technology in Nigeria.
He further shared that ‘every year we are going to be graduating 32,000 artisans, certified by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), who can work anywhere in the world.’’
Uba Sani added that his administration reduced fees at Kaduna State-owned tertiary institutions when he took office around 2.5 years ago.
‘Today, we have increased enrollment by over 200% across all tertiary institutions in Kaduna State,’ he pointed out.
He also claimed that Kaduna State is the only subnational in Nigeria that has upgraded 255 primary healthcare centers from level 1 to level 2.’’
‘We have at least 16 additional secondary healthcare facilities in Kaduna State that are well-equipped, renovated, and rebuilt,’ he said.
He announced plans to recruit 1,800 medical personnel—including nurses and doctors—every year for the next five years, a process that has already begun.
In agriculture, he highlighted Kaduna’s pioneering efforts in constructing a Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zone.
He added that Kaduna is Nigeria’s second state to partner with Afreximbank to build the Africa Quality Assurance Center (AQAC), supporting farmers’ produce certification for export.
Finally, he disclosed that in 2023, agriculture’s budget was just 0.5%, but now it exceeds 11%, surpassing the Malabo Declaration.
He concluded by stating his administration’s support for farmers, including the distribution of 900 trucks of free fertilizer to smallholder farmers.
