By; HASSAN YAKUBU
I want to use this medium to congratulate Senator Uba Sani for his 100 days in office.
While we are at it, I want to register some concerns.
Malam Nasir el-Rufai had left office and by my assessment, he would enter the history books as one of the best things that happened to Kaduna State. Not without pains or failures though! That makes him human.
But one major area that he hasn’t been able to pay much attention to or harness the potential, is the SMEs.
As we all know, the country is facing economic challenges. Poverty is at an all-time high. One sure way to reduce poverty among our people isn’t by mere distribution of palliatives alone, but by creating an enabling environment for SMEs to thrive. This would translate into the creation of more jobs.
In 2020, the previous administration came up with a model of market renewal in which Kaduna markets were expected to have new faces. As good as the objectives and intention towards the projects, the market remodeling system rendered many people jobless, while few others are still struggling.
Take, for instance, Lere Local Government Area, is probably the largest producer of maize in the North, but since its main market was demolished with the sole aim of remodeling it last year, and has not been rebuilt to date, the local government’s economic activities have crashed, pushing many people into joblessness. By this, the poverty level in the LG has increased.
Another example is the Lagos Garage along Kawo-Mando Road. The garage has successfully been remodeled, but the allocation of shops has not been done. Many of these people paid for the shops and borrowed money from banks to pay for the allocations. Many others who couldn’t raise the money, crashed out.
This is the same sorry state of Kawo, Unguwan Sanusi markets, etc.
The Kaduna State Government must come in, not just to finish the projects, but to empower many businesses with soft loans at a very affordable rates.
I am not against Kaduna State calling for investors, but I wish our local SMEs could be empowered with cheap loans to take advantage of the entire value chain of the production and distribution of maize and tomatoes in Nigeria and indeed Africa.
For proper contrast, in the harmattan period of almost every year, more than 30 per cent of fresh tomatoes you see across the country are from Zone A of Kaduna State. I once participated in this very supply chain.
Furthermore, some communities such as Mando only need a few road constructions (such as Assalamu Alaikum, Engineer, and Lema linking to the main roads) to better their economy.
Mando hasn’t been lucky in this regard in the last 17 years. The last about five kilometres road witnessed was during Senator Makarfi.
The inability to continue with Gaskiya, Tudun-Wada as well as New Jos Road, has crashed the economy of important communities in Zaria LG.
Completing and opening the markets in record time would ensure job creation, poverty reduction, stimulate state economic growth, thereby increasing consumer spending as well and increased revenue generation.
Hassan Yakubu is a founder of Jidda Integrated Services Ltd and a Convener of Kada SMEs Bootcamp
