Commission partners with Private sector on infrastructure development

The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) is set to surpass its own record in infrastructure development and efficient service delivery to Nigerian pilgrims.

This will be achieved as the Nigerian government through the Federal Executive Council granted approval to the Commission to develop its commercial properties on its 2.6-hectare land in Kano State North west Nigeria through the Public-Private Partnership arrangement.

The NAHCON Commissioner for Policy, Personnel Management and Finance Nura Yakasai disclosed this in an interview with Voice of Nigeria Correspondent Fatima Hassan in Abuja.

Yakasai said that the commission realised that commercialisation of some of its properties would facilitate efforts to raise the needed funds to meet up with the continuous growth of Hajj activities in the country.

He said, “the PPP arrangements is actually meant for us to be self-sustained in the sense that we will have more income that will help us in carrying out our operations. So when this first board comes we will look at all the offices where we have a land that is not being utilised that is laying fallow, so we decided that instead of them being idle like that we need to make use of them to utilise them so that we can generate income for the commission.”

“Once the commission generate income, our operational expenses would be made and that includes making sure that at least we take care of pilgrims and organised Hajj that is going to be comfortable for both the pilgrims and us.” Yakasai added.

Yakasai noted that “the whole idea of the PPP is guided by a commission of the federal government that is the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), so, the tenure of the arrangements depends on what you are going to do and the agreement with the client. Like that of Kano I can give you example, that of Kano which the federal government approved is going to run for over 35 years and after that it will return back to the commission or we can sign another agreement.”

He noted that the approach by the commission in turning dead assets into viable ones is to put the Commission on sound financial footing starting with the Kano project.

“By the time other NAHCON’s fallow properties get federal government’s approval for PPP concession, NAHCON’s infrastructural deficit would be a thing of the past. It is projected that the turnover certainly to emerge from the arrangement would be plenty enough to improve staff welfare, pay government dues and perhaps offer subsidy to pilgrims.”  Yakasai added.

Dominica Nwabufo