This is Part II of our celebration of Governor Malam Dikko Umaru Radda’s three years in office. We are grateful to the good people of Katsina State for the warm reception of Part I, where we documented his groundbreaking work in health, education, security, agriculture, infrastructure, and energy. The feedback has been intriguing. Many have written asking for more. Some have shared their own stories of how the Governor’s initiatives have touched their lives. In this second installment, we respond to those requests by examining what the Governor calls his “domestication of development”—how federal ideas have been adapted to Katsina’s soil and made to serve her people.
Three years on, Dikko Radda delivering where it matters
The architect of job creation: How KASEDA changed the game
When Governor Radda took office, he carried with him a memory. As Director-General of SMEDAN at the federal level, he had witnessed firsthand what proper support could do for small and medium enterprises. He had seen how a single intervention could unlock pathways to prosperity. He decided Katsina would not wait for federal programmes to trickle down. He would build the ladder himself.
In 2023, he established the Katsina State Enterprises Development Agency (KASEDA). The name matters. It is a local answer to a local question: how do we help our people take control of their economic destiny? KASEDA did not come with fanfare. It came with work.
Three years in, the numbers speak. KASEDA has created 5,373 jobs. Not promises of jobs. Not announcements. Created jobs — jobs that feed families, sustain livelihoods, and give young people reasons to stay in Katsina instead of fleeing to the cities. Three hundred and ninety-four small and medium enterprises have accessed non-interest loans. Let the reader sit with that number for a moment. In a country where interest rates make borrowing a luxury for the poor, KASEDA said: borrow without the weight of interest. Build without carrying debt’s burden.
The collaboration with the Nigerian Automobile Technicians Association (NATA) reveals something important about how the Governor thinks. He did not invent solutions in his office. He went to where the work happens. He found the mechanics, the artisans, and the young people learning trades in the streets. He partnered with NATA and said: let us do this together. The result? Fifteen hundred apprentices trained in mechatronics. Three thousand youth schooled in auto mechanics—tricycle mechanics, motorcycle mechanics, spray painters, panel beaters, and auto-electricians—across all thirty-five local government areas. These are young hands learning to build. These are minds discovering they have value. These are futures being shaped.
Among the loan beneficiaries, something powerful happened. Those who received grant support used the money not just to survive but to grow. They settled shop rents that had been outstanding. They kept workers on payroll when others were laying off. They paid utilities and reinvested in their businesses. The shops did not merely stay open. They expanded. The pattern is clear: when you give people cash and trust, they know what to do with it.
Access to finance is the gate that keeps most small business owners locked out. They have the skill. They have the determination. They have the dream. What they lack is a key to the bank’s door. For years, Katsina entrepreneurs knocked on that door. It would not open.
Governor Radda understands that you cannot ask the poor to wait for the rich to decide they are worthy of credit. So he did something different. He created the gate himself. In January 2025, KASEDA launched the ₦3.4 billion MSME Managed Fund. The words matter: it is not KASEDA’s fund. It is managed by KASEDA, but it belongs to the MSMEs. ₦3.4 billion means something in Katsina. It means hope. It means a small trader can walk into a bank, not as a supplicant, but as someone whose government has guaranteed her access.
KASEDA partnered with two institutions: the Bank of Industry and Sterling Bank. The partnership is intentional. These are not fly-by-night operations. These are institutions with history, stability, and networks that can reach remote areas. Through Sterling Bank, three hundred and ninety-four MSMEs have accessed interest-free loans. Through the Bank of Industry, one hundred and eleven have crossed the threshold. Three thousand one hundred and thirty-one more applications have been submitted to BOI for documentation—a pipeline of hope waiting to flow.
What happens when access to finance is real? The data shows. Beneficiary businesses grew. Sales increased by twenty-three per cent. They found new markets. They did not just sell to their neighbours anymore. They reached forty-five per cent more customers. Production went up. Profit margins expanded. Workforces grew. The businesses did not just survive. They thrived.
And importantly, the gates opened for both men and women. Seventy-one per cent of beneficiaries are male. Twenty-nine per cent are female. In a region where women often face double barriers—the general barrier of poverty and the specific barrier of gender—twenty-nine per cent is not a token. It is a statement. It is a choice made by the Governor to ensure that the prosperity agenda did not leave half the population behind.
Three years on, Dikko Radda delivering where it matters
When the Vice President comes to Katsina
In 2025, something happened that would have seemed unlikely a few years ago. Vice President Kashim Shettima came to Katsina to participate in the National Expanded MSMEs Clinic. His presence alone was a validation. It said: what Katsina is doing matters. It is worth the attention of the highest levels of government.
At that clinic, sixty vendors received three million naira each. Twenty outstanding businesses were given five million naira. Fifteen million naira was awarded to outstanding scholars. The amounts vary, but the message is consistent: your work matters. Your contribution to the economy is seen. Your struggle is acknowledged.
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It is easy to miss the significance. It is easy to see the numbers and move on. But stop here. In a nation of 200 million people, in a state of about four million, the Vice President showed up. He showed up not to cut a ribbon at a government building. He showed up to celebrate small business owners, traders, and young people trying to make a living. That is not ceremony. That is recognition.
The Dikko Social Innovation Academy
Young people in Katsina face a question that haunts emerging regions: where do I fit in the future? The manufacturing jobs that built the middle class are gone. The agricultural work that sustained generations is mechanising. What is left? What can I build? What can I become?
Governor Radda decided the answer was innovation. Not the grand kind that happens in distant laboratories, but the kind that starts in a young person’s mind and becomes a service or product that solves a problem. So he established the Dikko Social Innovation Academy.
Eighteen young people came through the doors. They learned software development. They studied data analytics. They mastered digital marketing. They understood UI/UX design. They delved into product management. They imagined what businesses could look like. They built and tested ideas.