Sani: Kaduna Smart City’ll Take Off Shortly

Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State is on the delegation of President Bola Tinubu to the on-going 2024 Forum on China and Africa Cooperation ending today. In this interview with Deji Elumoye in the Chinese capital, Beijing, Sani speaks about the agreement signed on Monday between the State government and a Chinese firm, Huawei, for the development of a smart city in Kaduna and its impact on good governance. Excerpts:

You just signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Huawei. Can you shed some light on it?

The Kaduna State government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Huawei on Kaduna smart city project. The project is a very important one, for the fact that the State and Huawei have been on it for some months now. But just last week, we came into agreement on the MoU and finally, we signed it at their head office in the presence of President Bola Tinubu.

Of course, the MoU on the Kaduna smart city will certainly enhance the security of the State, and efficiency and transparency in public service. Part of the areas we are focusing on is the establishment of health programmes which Huawei will help us through the deployment of technology to ensure that we have smart education, health care, establishment of state level command center in Kaduna that will also boost our security coverage in the State. It will also cover renewable energy as well as support our e-government.

So, for me, it is very important. It will also focus on our talent enhancement in the area of digital economy. These are things we intend to work with Huawei in Kaduna State because, for us, ensuring safety in Kaduna State is key.

Technology is what everyone is focusing on, and Kaduna State has so far taken the leading role in Nigeria. That is why we have become the first sub-national to enter into agreement with Huawei here in China.

What is the financing mechanism?

Kaduna State government has been able to attract a lot of investments in key areas from China in the last six to seven months. These are in the areas of solid minerals and renewable energy. We have already signed MoU with China in these regard.

Two months ago, I was also in China where we signed an agreement with Heibei province, one of the most established provinces in China. We entered into an agreement with them to establish Heibei industrial park in Kaduna State where a lot of investors from China can levarege on that to be able to bring investment to Kaduna.

I signed that agreement two months ago with the governor of Heibei province as well as the China Construction Engineering Company (CCEC) as the company that will build the Heibei industrial park. That is the first MoU signed by any government at the sub-national level with a province in China.

In the area of financing the project, it’s like trying to have a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement between the Kaduna State government and Huawei as well as other private investors from China.

It is actually a win-win situation. Our effort is to continue to attract investments, so that they can partner with us in trying to establish most businesses.

How soon will this project materialize?

We started the discussion as far back as about two months ago. Signing this agreement means that we are prepared already to start working on this MoU.

Already, we are working towards establishing a joint committee between the state government and Huawei so that the committee that will be put together in the next two weeks will be able to come up with some position so that we can have a smooth implementation of the agreement.