Kaduna to boost GDP by 50% in 2023 – El-Rufai

The Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El’Rufai, said on Thursday the state government would redirect its energy towards the development of a knowledge-based economy for the state.

El-Rufai, who disclosed this in a keynote address at the sixth edition of the Kaduna Investment Summit tagged: “KADINVEST 6.0,” revealed that the government would create seven million jobs by 2050 and boost the state’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 50 percent in 2023.

 

 

He added that the state would launch its second development plan for 2021 and 2025.

El-Rufai stressed that the state government was investing N80 billion on road networks in three cities across the state.

 He said: “We want to increase our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to 40 percent and achieve 20 percent contribution to agro-allied output to GDP. Our goal also is to achieve a 10 percent share of GDP in the electronics sector by developing a very strong electronics industry both hardware and software.

“Kaduna today is an automobile hub in the country because in addition to the Dangote-Peugeot plant, and the old Peugeot automobile plant which has been acquired by an Indian group that is also assembling vehicles, there are many downstream industries that produce windscreens and so on that are already here.

 

“In addition to that, the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC) is building a large automotive centre here in Kaduna and another European group is coming to build another assembly plant, so we see Kaduna as the future automobile hub in Nigeria.”

READ ALSO: Taxation the real solution to Nigeria’s financial challenges – El-Rufai

“Road transportation is a key area that we’re also investing in and I’m happy to announce that we have been offered a $200 million loan by the African Development Bank’s (AfDB) French Development Agency to do a BRT system in Kaduna, including high capacity buses that will run on renewable energy sources and gas, and we are proceeding with it.

“We hope to create between two million and seven million jobs by 2050. We hope to boost our GDP by 50 percent by 2023. We hope to increase business registration and formalizing the informal sector.

“Nigeria is importing too much of what it needs and not exporting a lot. Kaduna is focused on import substitution and is targeting the large Nigerian market, and we do hope that as a matter of national policy.”

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now