By Kazeem Waris
Katsina State Governor, Dikko Umaru Radda, has urged investors to partner with governments to convert development projects into bankable investments, saying private capital must play a bigger role in funding infrastructure, healthcare, agriculture and employment-generating ventures.
Radda made the call while delivering special remarks at the inaugural ASIS Global Action Forum, held on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The forum, convened by the Sterling One Foundation in partnership with the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, RALLY Africa and other partners, brought together global leaders, investors, development financiers, businesses and philanthropic organisations to explore ways of mobilising private and institutional capital for sustainable development in Africa.
Speaking from Katsina’s experience, Radda said the major challenge confronting governments was no longer the availability of financing opportunities but the ability to attract private capital through credible partnerships and investment structures capable of delivering measurable and sustainable outcomes.
“Our constraint is not the absence of financing options. Katsina has benefited from 11 World Bank projects with a combined portfolio of about $430 million across education, water, rural roads, agriculture and environmental development,” Radda said.
He listed the AGILE girls’ education programme, BESDA and TESS in basic education, ACRESAL for land restoration, SURWASH for water supply and RAAMP for rural road development among the interventions supporting the state’s development agenda.
He also highlighted newer initiatives, including SOLID, AGROW, SPIN and the Nigeria for Women Programme.
According to the governor, the African Development Bank is financing Katsina’s Agro-Industrial Processing Zone with $30 million, while the Islamic Development Bank is providing $60 million for the first phase of the state’s Integrated Agricultural Development Hubs.
Despite the growing access to development financing, Radda said private capital had not yet assumed the expected role in public projects, particularly at the subnational level.
“The sources have multiplied. What has not multiplied is private capital sitting inside public projects,” he said.
He identified uncertain revenue streams, untested off-take arrangements, currency risks, inadequate project preparation and concerns over the continuity of contracts across political administrations as factors discouraging private investment in public-sector projects.
To address the challenges, Radda called for stronger Public Private Partnership, PPP, frameworks, effective de-risking mechanisms, disciplined counterpart funding and transparent monitoring and evaluation systems.
He advocated legally sound and transparent PPP arrangements at the subnational level that could survive political transitions, stressing that governments must properly prepare projects and present investors with bankable transactions supported by clear financial structures.
The governor also called for greater use of guarantees, first-loss capital, viability gap funding, currency hedging and political risk cover to address the risks confronting investors in state-level projects.
On counterpart funding, Radda said governments must demonstrate financial discipline and credibility by honouring their commitments before seeking larger investments from the private sector.
“In Katsina, counterpart funding is a ring-fenced, first-charge line, because a government that cannot keep its smallest financial promise cannot ask anyone to keep a larger one,” he said.
Turning to investment opportunities in the state, Radda identified agricultural aggregation, storage, processing, logistics, mechanisation, off-take arrangements and working capital as areas where private investors could partner with government.
He urged investors to engage governments from the project-design stage, saying early engagement would allow potential risks to be addressed before investment structures were developed.
Radda assured prospective investors that Katsina would continue to promote policy stability, sanctity of contracts, transparent procurement, security of people and assets and responsible leadership.
He challenged participants at the New York forum to move beyond discussions and translate the commitments into investments capable of delivering tangible development outcomes.
