Kaduna State rose from eighth to second on Nigeria’s ease of doing business ranking, driven by reforms introduced under Governor Uba Sani, the Chief Strategic Adviser on Inter-Governmental Affairs to the Kaduna State Government, Audu Maikori has said.

Speaking on a television business programme in Lagos, Maikori attributed the improvement to a combination of security stabilisation, mining sector restructuring, and infrastructure investment that has repositioned Kaduna as one of the country’s more attractive investment destinations.

“Kaduna is now the second state in Nigeria for ease of doing business by PEBEC,” he said. “Three years ago when Senator Sani came into power, it was number eight.”

Describing the state’s investor engagement as “business unusual,” Maikori argued that Kaduna’s mining sector reforms in particular have distinguished it from other resource-rich states. He cited the July 2026 Memorandum of Understanding between the state, the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) and advisory firm Core International, describing the arrangement as a half-billion-dollar investment structured to keep mineral rights within state control.

“The Kaduna Mining Development Company holds the rights and the licences, both federal and state,” he said. “This is the first state in Nigeria that the AFC has decided to invest in for mines.”

On security, he pointed to the recent presidential award of a 122-kilometre road contract along the Mando-BirninGwari corridor, a route once considered too dangerous to travel, alongside the inauguration of 1,000 forest guards a few weeks ago with a further 1,000 in training.

“I left Kaduna last week at 7:30 in the evening and was in Abuja by 9:30,” he said, offering the trip as illustration of how far conditions have improved. “This is not just a function of the military. It is about the Kaduna Peace Model, which the Governor has put in place. That model is built around making sure that people are listened to, they are heard, and their concerns are actually addressed.”

Kaduna, particularly its southern axis, was for much of the past decade associated with insecurity, farmer-herder conflict and displacement. Under Uba Sani, who took office in 2023, the state government has pursued a community-led approach to peacebuilding that combines stakeholder dialogue and expanded local security recruitment with sustained federal collaboration.

Maikori also referenced the recently approved light rail project linking Kaduna and Abuja, valued at approximately ₦1 trillion, describing it as a development that will “change how people live and work” by making it feasible to reside in Kaduna and work in the federal capital. He noted that the project forms part of an intermodal system connecting the light rail to the main rail network and to newly deployed CNG buses.

“Property prices in Kaduna have escalated over the past three years,” he said. “People were selling off their investments a few years ago. Today, people are moving back.”

He concluded with a direct invitation to investors and prospective residents: “It is time to come to Kaduna and do business, and to live there as well.”