Kaduna’s investment-friendly climate supports sustainable growth

State authorities have worked to develop Kaduna’s infrastructure and business climate in recent years, identifying them essential to sustainable growth. The Kaduna State Infrastructure Master Plan (KADIMP) 2018-50 is the state’s long-term strategy for coordinated infrastructure development. The plan lays out interventions in the key sectors of transportation, housing, education, health, water and sanitation, and agriculture. Total projected expenditures under KADIMP amount to N20trn ($53.4bn). The plan aims to ensure that Kaduna becomes a model for urban development by 2050, as it leverages its strategic location in the northern urban corridor.

Development Plan

KADIMP builds off momentum from the State Development Plan (SDP), which was implemented in 2016 as a medium-term programme with the theme “Delivering on Jobs, Social Justice and Prosperity’’. The goal of the SDP, which ran through 2020, was to achieve inclusive growth and socio-economic transformation, and substantial improvements in quality of life through higher productivity and competitiveness. The SDP set an investment target of more than N800bn ($2.1bn) over the five-year period for public-private partnerships in agro-allied industries, railways and road transport, hospitality and retail. Public expenditure over the period was estimated to be N638.7bn ($103.3m). In the first year of the programme Kaduna implemented administrative reforms to improve the effectiveness of the state, such as reducing the number of ministries, departments and agencies from 24 to 13, and opening a one-stop shop for investors called the Kaduna Investment Promotion Agency.

As both the KADIMP and SDP require revenue to facilitate public expenditure, officials recognised the importance of boosting internally generated revenue (IGR). The Kaduna Internal Revenue Service (KADIRS) was created towards that end, and a consolidated tax code was introduced. KADIRS has made significant progress in expanding the tax base and collecting IGR through both tax and non-tax means, with IGR more than quadrupling from N11.7bn ($31.2m) in 2015 to N50.8bn ($135.6m) in 2020.

Doing Business

The local authorities have prioritised improving the ease of doing business, initiating legislation including the Public Procurement Law, the Geographic Information Service Law, the Civil Procedure Bill, the Kaduna State Road Authority Bill and the Kaduna Metropolitan Transport Authority Bill. An Ease of Doing Business Committee was created to unite agencies such as the Kaduna Geographic Information Service (KADGIS), the Kaduna State Urban Planning and Development Authority (KASUPDA), the Kaduna State Environmental Protection Authority, the Kaduna State Internal Revenue Service, the Ministry of Business Innovation and Technology, and the Kaduna Investment Promotion Agency.

These efforts led to tangible results, with Kaduna recognised as the most-improved state in the World Bank’s “Doing Business in Nigeria 2018” report. The World Bank cited Kaduna’s efforts in digitising land registry, and creating an electronic platform for company incorporation and the issuance of construction permits. Kaduna did not just improve in several categories, but became the top-ranked state in registering property and enforcing contracts.

KASUPDA met its goal of delivering building permits in under a month by attracting new engineers and architects to work for the state, vastly improving the speed and quality of its approval process. Meanwhile, KADGIS, the land registry agency, was instrumental in achieving many of the ease of doing business targets. Through a combination of simplifying requirements and fees, and a large-scale digitisation of maps and records, KADGIS reduced the time needed to register property by two months and cut costs by a third, placing Kaduna ahead of any other state in terms of the ease of registering property.