The Kano Economic City, also known as Kanawa International Market, is sitting on 117.2 hectares at the angular confluence of Zaria Road and Maiduguri Road.
The project is a Public-Private Partnership between Kano State Government (which provided the land) and Brains and Hammers Limited (developer), with Jaiz Bank as the financier. The project’s risks have been appropriately shared in a bid to ensure successful delivery and use of the market by traders and customers alike.
The President, Brains and Hammers, Umar Aliyu, gave the nod for the project’s commissioning when he visited the site recently. He said the Economic City was ready for business and traders were eager to see the market taking off.
Two of the pharmaceutical units and the GSM section, comprising 4,000 shops, are the first to be commissioned. It was gathered the pharmaceutical section is a federal initiative on drugs, primarily to control its movement and abuse. The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) which is responsible for regulating and controlling the manufacture, importation, exportation, distribution, sale and use of drugs has an office at KEC to check counterfeit and expired drugs. The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), charged to eliminate the manufacturing and sale of hard drugs, also has a branch at the market.
Project Director Dr. Abdullahi Hadejia Gambo said a Regulatory Office -an edifice housing NAFDAC, NDLEA, Standard Organisation of Nigeria, Pharmaceutical Council of Nigeria and all the regulatory agencies will also be commissioned.
