Ex-Governor Ganduje Diverts Kano State’s 20% Stake In Multi-Billion-Naira Dry Port To His Children, Awards N4Billion Contract To Family-Linked Firm – Report
INVESTIGATION: Ganduje embroiled in multi-billion naira Kano dry port ownership scandal
A PREMIUM TIMES investigation has uncovered how Mr Ganduje secretly stripped Kano State of its 20 per cent equity in the Dala Inland Dry Port Limited, transferring the shares to his children before awarding a multi-billion naira contract for infrastructure at the facility.
Former Kano State Governor Abdullahi Ganduje secretly transferred the state government’s 20 per cent stake in the Dala Inland Dry Port Nigeria Limited to private hands and also made his children co-owners of the company before awarding a contract worth more than N4 billion to provide infrastructure for the project, PREMIUM TIMES can report.
The transfer effectively edged Kano State out of the project’s ownership and positioned Mr Ganduje’s children as directors and shareholders. Shortly after, Mr Ganduje, then governor, awarded a contract for works that were originally the state’s responsibility under its equity agreement.
Mr Ganduje, who resigned this year as national chairman of Nigeria’s ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), governed Kano between 2015 and 2023.
How Kano acquired stake in dry port
On 4 September 2006, nearly a decade before Mr Ganduje assumed office, the Kano State Government purchased a 20 per cent stake in the Dala Inland Dry Port Limited under Governor Ibrahim Shekarau’s administration.
Mr Shekarau’s commissioner for commerce, industry, and cooperatives, Ahmad Yakasai, conveyed the government’s approval.
The acquisition followed the federal government’s 2003 port development policy, which encouraged private development of ports while allowing the federal and host state governments to retain minority stakes.
The policy capped private investors’ stake at 60 per cent and reserved 20 per cent each for the federal and state governments.
The policy required the government to lease out ports it had already developed to private investors for 15–25 years, depending on the equipment installed. Where private investors were the primary developers, the policy specified that federal and state equity participation was to be limited.
Dala Inland Dry Port
Strategically located in Kano, the commercial hub of northern Nigeria, the Dala Inland Dry Port was conceived to ease import and export processes, reduce transit times, and facilitate trade with neighbouring landlocked countries like Niger, Chad, and Cameroon.
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