Sani Awards 78 Road Projects, Completes 21, Says Commissioner

John Shiklam in Kaduna

The Kaduna State Government said it has awarded 78 road projects, totaling 775 kilometers, in the last 21 months, despite challenges.

The commissioner for  Public Works and Infrastructure, Ibrahim Hamza, disclosed this at a briefing with journalists at the Government House, Kaduna.

According to him, 21 of 78  road projects have  been completed and have  been put into use, thereby enhancing more economic activities across the state.

The commissioner said the completion of the Kaduna Bridge from Kabala Costain to Aliyu Makama Road was launched, pointing out that its completion will decongest traffic.

Hamza lamented that  his ministry faced serious challenges as a result of the huge liabilities inherited from  the Urban Renewal Programme of the previous administration.

According to him, some of the contractors received enough payments “to finish their projects, but have not finished and were bringing  outrageous claims.”

“This is  part of the reason why we didn’t  continue with such projects,’’ he said.  The commissioner said the administration of Governor Uba Sani inherited liabilities of unpaid contractors, over invoicing and  lack of documentation in road projects as well as low capacity utilisation in the water sector. 

He said most of the challenges had been overcome through a workable solutions that enabled the continuation of inherited projects and the initiation of new ones.

“Since the coming of this administration in the last 22 months, the government of Senator Uba Sani has done remarkably well.

“We have tried, notwithstanding the bedeviling challenges and obstacles that we encountered in the ministry itself and all the parastatals.

“We have largely overcome almost all the challenges that we met. These challenges are not limited to liabilities inherited, vandalization, lack of proper documentation.

“Contracts were awarded without documentation. Some were over-inflated and  therewere no records,” Hamza said.

Speaking on the water sector, the commissioner said, Sani’s administration “met capacity utilisation of  the water supply scheme  at  less than 5 per cent, but raised it  to 30 per cent and by the end of the year, it will reach 100 per cent.”

He said a lot had  been  invested in the water sector by the previous administration “but unfortunately, the result is  not commensurate with what has been invested.’’

According to him, “Some money was also borrowed from Islamic Development Bank to the tune of about $81 million.

“Another loan was collected again to the tune of $101 million for distribution from African Development Bank.

“There was  also another refund by the federal government to the tune of N17.2 billion”.

He explained further that a state of emergency was declared in the water sector by the governor, stressing that “the effort has tremendously improved water supply in Kaduna State.”

Hamza disclosed that the present administration has  paid all  salary arrears of the Kaduna Water Corporation staff, amounting to N800 million and settled an outstanding electricity bill of N1.3 billion.

He said between when the state of emergency was declared in the water sector in September, to December 2024, the state government injected over $25 billion,’’ he disclosed.

‘’This year, we are reaching and spending over N100 billion in the water sector. By December 2025, we are hopeful, we are going to have 100 per cent water supply, which is within the capacity of all our plants”, he said.