The Kano State Government says it has awarded contracts worth ₦996.29 billion under the administration of Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf, with 867 projects already completed across the state.
However, the state government stated that it has not borrowed a single kobo as a loan, either from within or externally, to finance any projects executed, while five contracts have been terminated for either violation of agreement or poor execution
The Commissioner for Public Procurement, Projects Monitoring and Evaluation, Comrade Nura Maaji Sumaila, disclosed this on Sunday during an international press briefing on project implementation, procurement compliance, geographical distribution and financial performance of the administration.
According to him, the ministry’s project database contains 1,557 clearly classified projects being implemented across Kano State.
He said 654 projects, representing 42 per cent, are currently ongoing, while 867 projects, or 55.68 per cent, have been completed.
The commissioner added that 26 projects, representing 1.66 per cent, are at the award stage, while 10 projects, or 0.64 per cent, have been planned and are ready for award.
Sumaila said the figures demonstrated a strong implementation profile, with more than half of the classified projects already completed.
On the financial performance of the projects, the commissioner disclosed that the cumulative contract sum stood at ₦996.294 billion, while ₦695.196 billion had received No Objection Certificate (NOC) approval.
He said payment certificates amounting to ₦444.747 billion had also been vetted by the ministry.
He explained that the NOC-approved amount represented about 69.78 per cent of the cumulative contract value, while vetted payments represented 44.64 per cent of the total contract value.
According to him, the difference between cumulative contract commitments and NOC approvals stood at about ₦301.098 billion, while the balance between NOC approvals and vetted payments was approximately ₦250.448 billion.
The commissioner stressed that the figures reflected the financial implementation chain and should be understood in the context of ongoing projects, certification processes and available fiscal resources.
He said the administration had deliberately pursued a broad-based development strategy designed to ensure that government investments were distributed across both urban and rural areas.
Sumaila said the ministry classified projects into single-LGA projects, cross-cutting projects covering two or more local government areas, and statewide or other projects whose benefits could not reasonably be attributed to one LGA.
He explained that the classification was necessary to avoid double-counting projects whose benefits extended across several local government areas.
The commissioner said about ₦159.50 billion, representing 16.01 per cent of the cumulative contract value, was associated with cross-cutting interventions.
He listed major projects in the category to include inter-LGA roads and bridges, metropolitan road corridors, traffic management systems, pedestrian bridges, solar-powered streetlights, wireless solar traffic lights and modern-city infrastructure.
Among the major strategic investments, Sumaila cited the approximately ₦113.19 billion mass-housing scheme under the Rural Model City Project covering all 36 rural LGAs.
He also disclosed that about ₦24.77 billion was associated with the expansion of Katsina Road, while approximately ₦22 billion had been awarded for prototype mass-housing units at Rijiyar Gwangwan.
Other major projects, he said,
included the approximately ₦27.74 billion Madobi–Yako–Kafin Maiyaki/Kiru Road intervention and about ₦21.90 billion for Modern Cities infrastructure involving Madobi and Kiru LGAs.
The commissioner said the project portfolio covered all 44 local government areas of the state, with interventions spanning urban infrastructure, rural development, mass housing, roads, bridges, healthcare, education, climate-resilient infrastructure and traffic management.
He noted that some strategic infrastructure projects could represent investments greater than dozens of smaller projects combined, stressing that government performance should therefore not be assessed solely by counting the number of projects in each LGA.
Sumaila said the ministry’s responsibility extended beyond recording projects to ensuring that public procurement and project implementation complied with due-process requirements.
He assured citizens, development partners, investors and the international community that the state government remained committed to transparency, accountability and value for money.
He said the ministry would continue to strengthen transparency in public procurement, monitor projects from procurement through completion, ensure that payment certification was linked to verified project implementation and provide objective information to government and other stakeholders.
The commissioner further said the ministry would continue to support proper planning and prioritisation of projects within available fiscal resources.
“Every naira committed to public development must be subjected to appropriate procurement procedures, monitoring and accountability,” he said.
Sumaila acknowledged that project delivery was a continuous process, noting that the government would continue to address implementation bottlenecks, strengthen certification procedures and prioritise substantially completed projects.
He called on the media, civil society organisations, professional bodies, development partners and the international community to engage constructively with the government as it monitors and evaluates the implementation of projects across the state.
He said the ultimate objective was to ensure that the large-scale investments being made by the administration translated into tangible improvements in the lives of Kano residents.
COURTESY: tribuneonlineng.com
