A recent citizen-journalism video has been circulating on Nigerian social media, showing the Aliko Dangote Ultra-Modern Skills Acquisition Centre on Zaria Road in Kano in a state of neglect. Broadcaster Bello Galadanchi walks through the facility, capturing printers covered in dust, idle motherboard testing rigs, sewing machines worth millions of naira gathering cobwebs, dismantled engines with no students, and a pigeon roosting calmly in a workshop. The narrator observes with bitterness that the bird seems to value the place more than the people.
On March 3, 2026, Daily Trust published an investigation confirming the video's claims. Sixty-three directly recruited staff had worked for nearly nine months without salary, with the last payment in May 2025. The Chief Press Secretary to the Governor confirmed that the Governing Council had been dissolved, no replacement was appointed, and Aliko Dangote halted contributions due to a lack of oversight.
On April 1, 2026, the Federal Ministry of Education issued a statement insisting the centre is not abandoned. Three hundred trainees have been training since November 2025 under the TVET II–IDEAS Programme in leather works, solar photovoltaic installation, and hospitality. Dangote has committed to managing the facility for the next 20 years.
Both statements are true but incomplete. The centre was designed for 20 trades with 1,000 trainees per cycle. Currently, only three trades and 300 trainees are active, roughly 15% of capacity. Seventeen of 20 workshops remain dormant, and the directly recruited Kano workforce has not been paid for nine months.
A Governance Design Failure
The centre's tripartite funding architecture—35% state, 35% Dangote, and 30% local governments—was sound on paper but lacked a fail-safe for routine administrative events like board dissolution. When the board dissolved, Dangote's contributions paused, local governments stopped contributing, and salaries collapsed. A N5.5 billion machine was failed by an unfilled appointment letter.
Institutional Memory Bleeds Out
Ninety-five percent of the curriculum—automotive engineering, computer assembly, welding, plumbing, electrical installation, and more—was delivered by trained personnel. Every month trainers sit unpaid, institutional knowledge leaks into the informal economy. Rebuilding this workforce will cost many times more than retaining them.
Reputational Damage to PPPs
Potential philanthropists learn that governance risk in Nigeria can erase capital regardless of good intentions. This will cost the country far more than N5.5 billion in deferred future investment across health, transport, and digital infrastructure PPPs.
A Partial Federal Rescue
The TVET II–IDEAS arrangement training 300 trainees is commendable, but routing federal funds through a parallel arrangement bypassing directly recruited staff sets a bad precedent. It signals that the federal level rescues equipment, not people.
An Engineered Recovery Plan
Within 30 days, Kano State should settle nine months of salary arrears and reconstitute the Governing Council. Within 90 days, reopen admissions for 17 dormant trades and commission a full equipment audit. Within six months, pass a Kano State Skills Acquisition Authority Bill to insulate the centre from political dissolution, embedding a PPP Continuity Clause. Within 12 months, diversify funding through graduate income-share components and co-financiers like TETFund, ITF, GIZ, and the World Bank. Within 24 months, codify lessons into a Nigerian TVET Continuity Code for all states.
The Discipline That Was Missing
Skills institutions are slow infrastructure of competence. Kano assembled such an institution at substantial cost. Most machinery and trainers can be recovered with arrears settled and credible governance restored. What is required is competence—appointing a board, writing a law, paying salaries, and publishing continuity covenants. The window to salvage the asset is finite, measured in months, not years.
Aziz-Abubakar is Deputy President of the Nigerian Institution of Structural Engineers, principal partner at Integrated Engineering Associates, and former director-general and CEO of NIMC.
