North Must Start Solving Challenges

Kaduna State Governor, Uba Sani, has said the northern region must stop complaining and start acting to tackle its challenges.

The governor noted that the north has enough human resources to solve its development challenges, if the elites come together and chart a way forward.

Governor Sani, who stated this when the leadership of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), led by the chairman of the Board of Trustees, Alhaji Bashir Dalhatu, Wazirin Dutse, paid him a courtesy call in Kaduna, said that the current leadership has renewed its focus.

The governor said the north has successful professionals and businessmen in every field of human endeavour, whose expertise can be harnessed for the benefit of the area.

Sani commended ACF’s plans to establish a Central Endowment Fund, advising that it should emphasis skills acquisition in order to ‘’make our people self reliant.’’

The governor lamented that there were too many northerners who are financially excluded, “because they don’t have bank accounts and so cannot benefit from government’s social intervention programmes.”

Governor Sani recalled that one of the first decisions he took when he assumed office was to sign the First Executive Order on Financial Inclusion, and within one year, over 2.1 million poor people were onboarded onto the financial system.

He also advised northern businessmen to invest in the financial sector which will greatly assist Small and Medium Enterprises in the north, revealing that more than 60% of local governments in the area lack a single bank branch.

Sani said ACF remains one of the key platforms capable of addressing the challenges confronting the north, as it is a neutral body without political bias.

The governor pointed out that the lack of synergy between ACF and the states, as well as political office holders of the northern region, had hampered the forum’s activities in the past, adding that the new leadership is charting a new course.

‘’For years, we have repeatedly spoken about our challenges — poverty, education gaps, healthcare deficits, and other development issues. I believe we have reached a point where we must stop complaining and start acting,’’ he added.

‘’Today as we are speaking, there are over 4,000 branches of national banks in Nigeria. But only Kaduna and Kano states have about 100 branches. But if you go to some states in the south that are not even up to 20% of the population of Kano state, they have more bank branches than Kano state which has 44 local governments.”

Speaking earlier, ACF chairman Board of Trustees Alhaji Bashir Dalhatu, said that the ACF delegation was at Sir Kashim Ibrahim House to formally notify Governor Uba Sani of its forthcoming 25th Anniversary celebrations which will hold in Kaduna from 20th to 22nd November, 2025.