In a bid to decongest Kano and transform the ancient city into a megacity with world class facilities, the state government mooted the idea of 3 mega cities in 2012 and about 1500 luxury houses were built in three new cities, namely, Kwankwasiyya, Amana and Bandirawo.

About 500 luxury apartments were built in the Kwankwasiyya city by 2015 to address the challenges of affordable housing, overcrowding and overstretched public infrastructure and related problems, making the state the most economically developed.

However, over 10 years after commissioning by former army chief General TY Danjuma, Kwankwasiyya city, which over N35 billion was sunk in, remained largely unoccupied as only few house owners moved in with their families.

The city, apart from the luxury duplexes and bungalows, was designed to have a hospital, school, commercial plots, hotel, mosques, conference centre and a park and garden.

Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf, who was the commissioner for works when the idea of the mega cities was first mooted by the Kwankwaso administration in 2011, was very disappointed to discover that the rate of physical occupation by owners was very low when he visited the city after he assumed office in 2023 vowing to complete and hold council meetings in a new governor’s lodge to encourage physical occupation of the buildings by home owners.

Consequently, the 29th,30th and 32nd cabinet meetings were held in the lodge in July August and October 2025 symbolising that the city was secure and habitable.

Our correspondent gathered that security is the biggest factor responsible for near low occupation of the houses by the real owners or genuine tenants. Water supply is another challenge as the area is a bit far from Kano metropolis.

To encourage people to move into the houses, the state government connected the city to its Tiga Hydropower plant supplying constant electricity to the residents.

The governor also created a full pledged Ministry of Housing Development to exercise oversight functions over the State Housing Corporations hitherto responsible for sales and management of the city.

Permanent secretary of the ministry Tijjani Muhammad Sharif said following measures taken by the administration, physical occupation of the houses in the city has improved tremendously which he put at about 60©.

He recalled that in October last year, the commissioner for Housing Development Arc Ibrahim Yakubu Adamu gave property owners in the city final notice to complete their houses for occupation in 3 months failure of which the allocation would be revoked,noting that many complied substantially.

He said holding cabinet meetings in the city helped build confidence and stimulated habitation in the city equipped with functional infrastructure.

However, the recent purchase by governor Yusuf of 324 houses previously allocated to the state pension union whose N4.5 was used to build the city, revealed that quite a number of the buildings remain unsold or unoccupied.

Abdullahi Yusuf and Jakada Abubakar,both civil servants said the luxury houses in the Kwankwasiyya city are beyond the reach of low income earners,alleging that the houses were allocated to politicians, commissioners and senior civil servants and hence not fully occupied years after completion.

They argued that had the houses been built and allocated to civil servants,100 percent occupation of the houses would have been achieved.

“Those houses were not meant for civil servants like me. Where on earth can I raise money to buy a house valued at over N20 million,” said Yusuf.

Another civil servant who craved for anonymity said since the era of Kundila Housing units at Zoo and Maiduguri road, civil servants have not been given the opportunity to buy houses in estates built by the government.

“ Laud as the initiative is, hardly civil servants in the state are given opportunity to buy or own a house.

Only politicians get allocations which most of them sell to private individuals after pocketing their profits.

“ In the past, civil servants had the opportunity to own houses in Kundila Housing estate or Jaoji quarters.There is one Director in one of the ministries who got a house in Gyadi-Gyadi Jaoji low-cost housing estates but apart from him I cannot name any civil servants that benefitted from the housing estates built by the state government whether in Kwankwasiyya,Amana or Bandirawo cities.It is just unfortunate,” he said.

Another civil servant who also does not want his name in the print said even the two bedroom houses built by the Ganduje administration near Aliko Dangote Skills Acquisition Centre were purchased largely by private individuals,let alone luxury apartments in Kwankwasiyya city.

He said most civil servants have no access to a mortgage facility with few years left in service and therefore find it difficult to meet conditions set by the Housing corporations to buy the houses.

“Duplexes built in Kwankwasiyya are obviously not meant for civil servants or low income earners.The government wanted to build expensive cities where politicians or their cronies can own property but the worst part of it is that even the two bedrooms houses do not really get to some of us with few years left in the service,” he added.

The Housing Development Ministry’s Permanent secretary, however, said the houses were offered at a discounted rate to senior civil servants but most of them failed to purchase either because they cannot afford to buy or for other reasons,leaving the government with no option than to sell to interested buyers who can buy at the market value of the properties.

According to him, a two bedroom bungalow at Kwankwasiyya costs about N28 million while a 3 bedroom was put at about NN38 million but the market value of the houses has more than doubled now.

The Normal procedure of purchasing property built by the state Housing Corporation is through deposit of 10 percent of the value of the property while the balance is spread over 10 year period.

The rules were however,set a side for the Kwankwasiyya city where the state government granted allocations to individuals and asked them to make outright payments.

A retired senior civil servant confided in our reporter that in some instances influential politicians were asked to pay paltry sum to take possession of the houses.

He said Kundila Housing estate built in the 70s and 80s have been sold to civil servants who may have left service now but enjoying life after retirement. (Daily Trust)