Funding challenges delay Kano Independent Power project

From Ibrahim Ismail, Kano
Challenges encountered in accessing a N10 billion loan from the Bank
of Industry, BOI, is slowing down the completion of the multi-billion
Naira Kano Independent Power Project, the Governor of Kano state, Dr.
Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has revealed.
He therefore appealed to the management of the bank to take steps to
hasten its credit delivery process, to facilitate completion of the
project by the end of this year.
Speaking when he received the Managing Director of the bank, Mr.
Olukayode Pitan in his office recently, the governor said, “We are
having difficulty in accessing the fund and we want to get the power
project on by the end of this year to power our industries”.
Dr. Ganduje also lamented that certain formalities were responsible
for the minimal access to the BOI/Kano state Matching Fund, pointing
out so far, only about 400 million out of the N2 billion set aside
were disbursed.
The governor re-stated the commitment of his administration to work
more closely with the bank, to assist local entrepreneurs to access
the fund and add value to the administration’s socio –economic
development objectives.
Governor Ganduje, who frowned at the inability of many creditors to
honor their obligations to the bank, said such attitude was not
helping the system, adding that the state government has created
special courts to prosecute those that fault to make repayment for
bank loan.
In his remarks, the Managing Director of the Bank of Industry, Mr.
Olukayode Pitan, announced that the bank has concluded arrangements  to
receive the second tranche of the N500 million of the matching Fund to
further support the indigenous entrepreneurs in Kano.
He further stated, “The bank has commenced cluster-based program that
are targeted at funding the projects in the 40 identified clusters in
Kano including Rice cluster, Kura, Tomato cluster Kadawa and Leather
cluster Kofar Wambai”.