The Kano state government has responded to claims by Kano elders under the Kano Unity Forum headed by the former presidential candidate of the defunct National Republican Convention, NRC, Bashir Tofa disagreeing with Governor Abdullahi Ganduje on planned N300 billion loan from China for the construction of light rail in the state.
Speaking on Friday, August 28, 2020, in Kano, the special adviser to the state governor on media, Salisu Yakasai explained that the process of the contract started about three years ago and underwent all the required procedures including permission of president Muhammadu Buhari, the National Assembly as well as the Federal Ministry of Finance.
“Governor Abdullahi Ganduje personally went to President Muhammadu Buhari to present the project and seek permission which was granted. It was taken to the National Assembly’s committee on loan procurement and the Federal Ministry of Finance.
“All the processes have been accomplished in the last three years not that it is just beginning. Maybe the elders have not done their homework. This is not something that was started two or three months ago it is a process that started about three years ago. It was not something done haphazardly.
“The terms of this loan has been stated since day one, the moratorium period before the repayment of the loan commences, the period of time for the payment, the sources of revenue from which the state will repay the loan which includes revenue from the train, advertisements on the train and some amount from the IGR of the state.
“It is important for elders to study the document. If they want the government can make it available for them. It is not a hidden arrangement that one would claim ignorance on the facts of the agreement.
“Everything is concluded, it is now the first part of the project that will commence. The total cost of the project is $2 billion. They will start by releasing the amount that will be enough for the first line of the project which is from Dawanau to Bata.
There are going to be about four lines for which the $2 billion will be used. But the state government is going to start with the first part of the project which is from Dawanau to Bata.
The completion period for this is about three years after which if its start repaying the loan then the second phase will commence and then the third and the forth.”
He added that there is no money coming to the state government or the Governor but from the bank funding the project to the contractors executing it.
“This money is not coming to Governor Ganduje. It is not going to be given to any individual. It is going from the Chinese bank funding it to the Chinese contractor in charge of the contract. The money is not going to come to the Kano state account.
This is part of the agreement. No one should assume that the money is going to be collected for something else” Yakasai stated.
Source: Vanguard
