Sir: Cities rarely change in one dramatic moment. They evolve – junction by junction, market by market, decision by decision – until the place people inhabit feels fundamentally different. In Kano today, that evolution is increasingly organised around one idea: Urban renewal.
For years, development in Kano meant scattered fixes – a repaired road here, a drainage there, a strip of streetlights on a once-dark highway. The current administration is now trying to turn those fragments into a coherent plan: a more modern, liveable and resilient Kano that still honours its history.
The 2026 budget makes that intent explicit. After two years of prioritising a state of emergency on education, the government now puts “completion of ongoing projects, particularly the Urban Renewal Project” at the centre of its fiscal agenda. Urban renewal is framed not as a few prestige schemes, but as a transformative effort to modernise cities and rural centres, improve mobility and enhance quality of life. The layout and functioning of Kano’s streets, markets and neighbourhoods have become core business, not an afterthought.
The groundwork was laid in 2025, when infrastructure already claimed a significant share of spending. Roads were rehabilitated and marked, key arteries reconstructed with drainage, and emergency repairs kept strategic routes open after storms. The message was clear: the city’s road network is once again being treated as a strategic asset.
Urban renewal, however, reaches beyond asphalt. Renovated government buildings and new purpose-built offices reduce dependence on rented premises and improve coordination. A dedicated Ministry of Housing Development and a strengthened State Housing Corporation give housing clear institutional ownership, while new layouts and corridors are provided with roads, drains, and power so they grow in a planned way rather than as unregulated sprawl.
Taken together, these changes form a web of interventions that alter how the city is lit, powered, cleaned, drained and navigated.
Mobility and safety are a natural starting point. Wireless solar-powered traffic lights at major intersections introduce order where there was once improvisation, cutting accidents and improving journey times. Solar-powered streetlights along metropolitan roads and at local government headquarters extend productive hours and make nighttime movement safer.
New transformers and solar home systems ease power constraints and bring electricity to households that once depended on darkness or generators.
Transport planning itself is being redesigned. A Kano State Transport Policy and the creation of the Kano Metropolitan Area Transport Authority signal a shift from reactive traffic control to proactive mobility management. The procurement of electric tricycles under a mass-transport scheme fits into this logic. On the surface, it creates livelihoods for young people; deeper down, it nudges the city away from noisy, high-emission vehicles towards cleaner, more orderly movement in dense neighbourhoods.
Urban renewal is also evident in commercial spaces. Remodelling major markets with better layouts, drainage, and services aims to shift daily trading from congestion and chaos to safer, cleaner, more efficient hubs.
Culture and identity are folded into this redesign rather than pushed aside. By repositioning the tourism and culture ministry and hosting events such as the Kano Festival, the government signals that renewal is not about erasing the old city but about curating it. Cleaner streets, upgraded markets, and better-designed public spaces provide a stronger stage for Kano’s rich traditions.
Kano has also adopted a Climate Change Policy to guide the state toward a low-carbon, climate-resilient path. Regular drainage clearance in metropolitan areas has already helped the city cope better with heavy rains. Erosion-control projects and wider interventions are strengthening defences against storms and soil loss.
Sanitation is being modernised too. Mechanised street-sweeping vehicles and thousands of litter bins mark a move from episodic clean-up campaigns to a system built on equipment, routines and clear responsibility. Tree-planting campaigns – with seedlings distributed to schools, worship centres and major streets – are gradually softening the city’s hard edges and improving air quality.
These interventions – roads and drains, markets and office complexes, traffic systems and tree cover – amount to more than a project list. They resemble a genuine blueprint: a deliberate reimagining of how a Sahelian megacity should function in an era of climate stress, demographic pressure and economic uncertainty.
The 2026 budget deepens this sense of purpose. Roughly two-thirds of total spending is allocated to capital projects, and a full quarter to infrastructure. A mass-housing programme across multiple locations aims to tackle shelter needs while creating jobs and new formal neighbourhoods. The vision of developing SMEs and an “economic city” around the Ajaokuta–Kaduna–Kano gas pipeline corridor ties today’s investments in roads, power and serviced land to tomorrow’s industrial opportunities.
Yet a reflective reading must be honest about risk. Nigerian landscapes are littered with half-built flyovers, stalled housing schemes and markets that never opened. A blueprint, no matter how elegant, is only as strong as the institutions and habits that implement it.
For Kano, the test will not be the language of its plans but the discipline of its execution. Can ministries, agencies and contractors coordinate? Will procurement be competitive and transparent? Will drains be cleared every year, not just before the cameras arrive? Will electric tricycles be integrated into a broader transport system or left to fend for themselves?
Success will also depend on who is invited into the process. Legislators, civil society, the media, and residents can insist that projects in their neighbourhoods are carried out properly and maintained.
The outline of a different future is already visible: lit streets where there was once darkness; smoother journeys on formerly broken roads; emerging estates on serviced land; machines sweeping streets; markets preparing to reopen in better condition. If the city that emerges over the next few years reflects the ambition now etched into the budget, Kano’s blueprint for urban renewal will do more than redraw maps. It will quietly redraw lives – making it easier to move, safer to work, cleaner to breathe and more dignified to call Kano home.
Damilare Ogunleye, a public affairs commentator, wrote from Abuja.
