An agricultural firm, Al-Qaryah Agro Allied Ltd has tabled a landmark $1.295 billion Public-Private Partnership (PPP) proposal to the Hadejia-Jama’are River Basin Development Authority (HJRBDA) to convert the Challawa Gorge Dam into Nigeria’s flagship agro-industrial hub.
The company’s management team, led by Chief Executive Officer Abubakar M. Nagwamatse, presented the plan at HJRBDA headquarters in Kano to Managing Director Engr. Rabiu Suleiman Bichi and his technical team.
Nagwamatse explained that the initiative seeks to deploy modern aquaculture and floating agriculture methods already in use across Asia to maximise the dam’s underutilised water body.
‘We plan to introduce crop production on water surfaces, alongside aquaculture and irrigation farming. This project will create at least 10,000 jobs and significantly boost food supply, which in turn will lower prices and open export opportunities,’ he said.
He lamented that the arrangement will help maximise the dam, which he said is presently not being put to its maximum capacity, leaving it only to subsistence small-scale farming.
He said the project is multi-dimensional and will integrate deep-water cage aquaculture, aquaponics, hydroponics, rice-fish farming, duck farming, aquatic plant cultivation, floodplain irrigation, and land-based infrastructure, including a 150,000 metric tonne per year feed mill and a 50-million-fry hatchery.
Al-Qaryah stressed that the investment aligns with national food security goals, the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ) programme, and the Komadugu-Yobe Basin SAP.
Responding, Engr. Bichi welcomed the proposal, noting that the Authority had long awaited private sector participation in PPP ventures.
He described the plan as a major step toward unlocking the socioeconomic potential of Northern Nigeria’s water infrastructure.