The Kano Economic City (KEC), also known as Kanawa International Market, will open next month, Brains and Hammers Limited, the developer of the project, said yesterday.
The multi-billion naira Kano Economic City Project is a world-class, premier city market occupying 117 hectares in Kano State.
The market represents the largest economic hub in Northern Nigeria, designed as an architectural focal reference point for major market development projects within West Africa.
The project, which has a total of 13,000 shops, is a Public-Private Partnership between Kano State Government and Brains and Hammers Limited.
Apart from shops, the market has trailer parks, passenger motor parks, a conference centre, petrol stations, hotels, malls and medical facilities. There is power supply and distribution, street lighting, 24-hour security, telecommunications ducts and other essential plug and play facilities that typify an efficient trade community.
KEC Board Chairman Mallam Muhammed Aliyu, who conducted reporters round the project, said the Kano Economic City has been developed in three phases, of which phase one of the project has reached completion stage.
The phase one, Aliyu said, is made up of 1,000 units of duplex, luxury and basic shops dedicated to pharmaceutical wholesalers, and another 3,000 units of shops designed for the information technology section, to be called ‘GSM village.’
“KEC is an appropriately-timed project in Kano State, necessitated by the quantum of commercial activities and cross-border trades facilitated through the state.
“These commercial activities have substantially outgrown existing market facilities and as such dense congestion of the markets and its environs accelerate wear and tear on existing infrastructure.
“This has led to huge financial losses emanating from uncontrollable fire outbreaks and other menaces which occur almost on an annual basis in recent time,” Aliyu said.
Project Director, Dr. Abdullahi Hadejia Gamble, said the pharmaceutical and GSM sections would be inaugurated first.
