‎By Mukhtar Yahya Usman

‎Kano State is witnessing a new wave of reforms, projects, and interventions under Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf as his administration pushes forward with ambitious programmes touching nearly every sector of life in the state.

‎From infrastructure and education to housing policy, emergency relief, and traditional governance, recent months have shown the governor’s determination to deliver on his promises.

Roads and Infrastructure at the Forefront

The administration has invested heavily in roads and urban renewal. In May 2025, over ₦20.3 billion was approved for dualization projects in Bebeji, Tudun Wada, Garun Mallam, Madobi, and Tsanyawa, alongside repairs of storm-damaged public facilities and the construction of a commemorative auditorium.

Shortly after, the governor personally flagged off reconstruction of the 3.6-kilometre Zungeru Road and the Gayawa–Bulbulawa road in Nassarawa Local Government, stressing that the projects were crucial to easing congestion and stimulating economic activity.

Governor Yusuf’s commitment to physical development was recognized at the Africa International Housing Show (AIHS) 2025, where he received the Infrastructure Governor of the Year Award.

Eucation Emergency Yields Results

Education remains at the heart of the Yusuf administration. In May, the governor announced sweeping reforms that included the permanent recruitment of 4,000 BESDA workers, distribution of ₦2.8 billion worth of instructional materials, solarization of 200 schools with 250 computers each, and the hiring of 17,600 security guards for public schools.

‎These initiatives followed a policy of dedicating 31 percent of the state’s budget to education, earning the governor the Leadership Governor of the Year 2024 Award for Education.

Compassion in Times of Crisis

‎The Yusuf administration has also shown a compassionate face in moments of tragedy.

After the June 2025 road crash that claimed the lives of 22 Kano athletes returning from a national sports festival, the governor declared a day of mourning and directed that each bereaved family receive ₦1 million and food support.

The gesture drew praise across the state as a humane response to an incident that shocked the nation.
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Housing: “Use It or Lose It”

Housing has also come under focus. In March, the governor issued a strong warning to allottees of properties in Kwankwasiyya, Amana, and Bandirawo estates to either occupy their units or face revocation.

‎ He also ordered the restoration of basic amenities in the estates and began discussions with the Federal Mortgage Bank to provide civil servants with easier access to home ownership.

Tradition and Governance

Governor Yusuf’s decision last year to abolish the Bichi and Rano emirates and restore a unified Kano Emirate under Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II continues to shape governance in the state in 2025, with implications for both traditional authority and modern administration.

A Governor Under Spotlight

‎As 2025 progresses, the strands of Governor Yusuf’s policies are becoming clear: heavy spending on roads, a declared emergency in education, a firm hand in housing, quick relief in crises, and decisive reforms in the traditional institution.

Observers say these efforts reflect both the urgency of the challenges confronting Kano and the governor’s bid to leave a lasting legacy in Nigeria’s most populous state.

 Zulaiha Danjuma

The National Population Commission (NPC) E-birth registration service was launched to allow Nigerians to register children at birth and receive a birth certificate online.

KANO FOCUS reports, with the support of UNICEF, this digital platform aims to provide a secure and accessible digital identity for every Nigerian child.

This is to enhance service delivery and establish a centralized identity data hub, accessible to healthcare, financial, and security agencies nationwide.

Since November 2024, over 933,859 digital birth registration have been recorded in Kano state, according to Alhaji Ismaila Al-Hassan Dogo, State Director of the NPC.

According to UNICEF, the digital birth registration platform has revolutionized the traditional registration process, doing away with tedious paper-based applications. This innovative platform has streamlined birth registration, eliminating double entries and ensuring a seamless, integrated experience.

The platform targets capturing all unregistered children in the 44 local government areas of Kano state and integrating them into the state’s database, NPC State Director, Al-Hassan Dogo said.

According to UNICEF, the new e-birth registration system would automatically generate and secure a National Identity Number (NIN) for every child registered.

UNICEF also said, registering children on the e-birth platform paves the way for a smoother future. With a digital birth certificate, kids can breeze through school enrollment, visa applications, and even international passport requests – setting them up for success from the very start.

So far, the NPC has said that Kano state has the highest number of e-birth registration in the entire country

But a recent visit to the Muhammadu Abdullahi Wase Teaching Hospital in Kano revealed a concerning lack of awareness about the National Population Commission’s (NPC) free E-birth registration for newborns among some new mothers.

 Low Awareness about e-birth Platform 

Many new mothers remain unaware of the e-birth platform and the services available to them.

Fatima Awwal Habib, a mother of four, expressed her surprise at learning about the service. “I have never heard of any such E-birth registration process for birth certificates,” she said.

Another mother, Safiya Ahmad, also confessed to being unaware of the digitalized birth registration process. “I am not aware of such,” she said, adding that the only birth certificate she had for her children was the one issued by the hospital.

New mothers Zainab Sale and Hafsat Isa were also surprised to learn about the free E-birth registration service. Ms. Zainab, who had just given birth to her son a week ago, said, “I am hearing this from you now, I don’t know if any birth certificate is supposed to be given to my son at the hospital, let alone me registering him for a national one through an online platform.”

Ms. Hafsat, while breastfeeding her few days old child, said, “I kept quiet earlier because this is very new information to me, I had never heard of a national free E-birth registration before today.”

But low digital literacy levels among many new mothers also poses a significant challenge to the e-birth service’s usability.

“A lot of people are not tech-savvy to use a website that requires a payment,” Bello Sani, a renowned Software Engineer and tech industry expert, who founded Tenet Technology, explained.

“Most people can go to a site to fill out forms and submit, but payment systems are still a struggle for a large number of the population. Many have to go to an internet center to be able to successfully access such service.”

This lack of awareness and limited literacy levels threaten to undermine the effectiveness of the NPC’s E-birth registration initiative. As Bello Sani noted, “This in itself will exclude people in rural areas completely, because issues of social and financial inclusion are still a problem.”

Processing fees

Accessing the digital platform and it’s services is supposed to be free for children under five years of age. But parents are required to enter a payment reference number when initiating the registration process.

The NPC’s public statement says registration is supposed to be free for children under five and costs N2,000 for those above five, the platform’s user interface tells a different story.

A closer examination of the e-birth portal reveals that a fee of ₦2,030 is actually charged for registering any child, regardless of age.

This glaring inconsistency raises questions whether the E-birth registration is truly free for Nigerian children under 5.

This is particularly concerning, as Nigerians who need this service the most, are those financially vulnerable and unable often to afford the fee.

“When the public have an impression that a government service is going to be free but it turns out to have a hidden charge it makes the public lose trust in the entire system” Bello said.

“This is a financial exclusion tactic in a way because the website is public and not a business website, which usually has its target audience, this is a government website.

The added charge makes it that people who can’t afford the service fee would not be able to use the service, hence are excluded” he added

As the NPC’s e-birth registration initiative holds great promise for Nigeria’s future, it’s imperative that the commission prioritizes widespread awareness and reviews the payment clause to ensure inclusivity. Collaboration with stakeholders is crucial to address these challenges and unlock the full potential of this game-changing initiative.

This story is produced under the Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) Fellowship of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) and Co-Develop in partnership with Kano Focus online Newspaper. 

Zulaiha Danjuma

Hara, a healthcare worker in Kano, fell victim to a sophisticated scam on TikTok. 

KANO FOCUS reports that, a scammer, posing as a married woman based in the US, with Saudi Arabian heritage, gained Hara’s trust.

“I was so excited when she sent me a message,” Hara recalled. “She seemed so kind and genuine, and we started talking about our shared interests. I didn’t think twice about trusting her.”

The scammer sent Hara a photo of a laptop, claiming she would send it to her, along with £9,000. Hara was convinced and sent N75,000 to a microfinance bank account to cover supposed shipping costs.

“I felt like I had won the lottery,” Hara said. “I couldn’t wait to receive the laptop and the money.”

However, when Hara realized she had been scammed, she felt devastated.

“I couldn’t sleep for days, thinking about how I had been so foolish,” she said. “I felt ashamed and anxious, wondering how I would pay my bills or provide for my family.”

This scamming technique is known as “Advanced Fee Fraud,” a situation where scammers request money from their victims before an item or goods is delivered to them or service rendered to them.

The prevalence of advanced fee fraud in Kano is alarming, with many cases going unreported.

Notable cases of advanced fee fraud scammers in Kano include Musa Lurwanu-Maje and Aliyu Hussaini.

Musa Lurwanu-Maje’s modus operandi involved creating fake personas on Facebook and WhatsApp, stealing pictures from random social media users and claiming them as his own.

By using these fake profiles, he deceived unsuspecting individuals, ultimately defrauding them.

Another notable example is the case of Aliyu Hussaini, who posed as a textile seller on Facebook.

He deceived a woman who ordered 14 textiles worth N100,000. Instead of delivering the ordered items, Hussaini sent her rags, defrauding her of her money.

In 2023, the Economic Crimes Commission (EFCC) arraigned a couple for a N410 million advanced fee fraud in Kano state. This high-profile case highlights the growing concern of advanced fee fraud in the region.

How the Police Force is fighting cyber fraud?

The Kano State Police Command has made numerous arrests of such social media related advanced fee fraud cases but wants to take its fight a notch higher.It is leveraging the federal police force’s digital platform that helps to report such crimes for swift action.

The Nigerian Police Force has a dedicated website specifically for reporting fraud and cybercrime.

The website offers users the ability to report online or social media fraud to the police force from the comfort of their phones and electronic devices.

The website is www.specialfraudunit.org.ng is managed by the NPF under its Special Fraud Unit and offers an essential information database for the police to combat cybercrime.

Various security agencies across Nigeria leverage on the information provided by this dedicated website to track perpetrators and support victims.

The Kano State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Abdullahi Haruna Kiyawa said the outfit is happy with the support it is getting from the said digital portal.

SP Abdullahi Haruna Kiyawa

He said in combating social media advanced fee fraud the police Anti-cyber crime and the anti-money laundering units at the Kano State Bompai Police Headquarters are working closely.

“These offices are enabled with modern equipments for policing activities to combat various issues of cybercrimes” he said

SP Kiyawa said aside intelligence gathering and sharing the officers of the Kano State Command Anti-cyber crime units are constantly receiving specialized training, especially in checkmating and investigating social media and internet related fraud.

“We have constant training at divisional levels, command level as well as in the commands department of criminal investigations. We also have an upcoming training on Artificial intelligence (AI) for officers in order for them to understand the emerging technologies and how to best navigate financial internet fraudsters and their schemes” he explained

The Kano State Police Public Relations Officer added that the command has dedicated hotlines where the public can call in to report social media fraud.

“We leverage social media a lot, we also have engagements with social media influencers who assist the command to trickle down the message for the need of online safety, detection of misinformation, disinformation, Mal information and fake news that can all possibly lead to fraud”

These efforts have yielded a number of public outcry about fraudulent individuals on their social media interactions that resulted in several arrests by the Kano State Police Command.

The Role of digital verification systems

A Financial Crimes and Data science expert, Dr. Umar Yakubu explained further that incorporating biometrics and the use of blockchain on emerging technologies will minimize the occurrence of financial crimes.

Dr. Umar Yakubu

“Biometrics is a great tool that aids security, with the world now moving away from biometric fingerprints to facial and iris biometrics, these are some of the great tools that can be adopted to enhance data security and identity verification.”

“Blockchains are also great tools as they help to enhance transparency thereby tracking transactions and verifying identities too.”

If only Hara had been aware that the photo on the TikTok account, supposedly belonging to a US-based Saudi Arabian woman, was actually a stolen image used by a scammer, she might have avoided the devastating experience of being defrauded.

Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) has become a crucial tool in combating financial fraud. Its reliable identity verification and transaction monitoring capabilities provide a secure foundation for online interactions, ensuring a safe and trustworthy environment for individuals to engage in financial and social activities.

Engaging social media companies in the fight

According to Dr. Umar Yakubu, social media companies must do more to help fight social media fraud.

“Social media platforms say if someone is below 16 or 18 they can’t sign into their platforms, but in reality, even 10-year-old children are able to open accounts,” Dr. Yakubu said. “This happens because these platforms do not demand proper identification.”

The ability to set up social media accounts without using personal pictures or a real name are among the issues which drive advanced fee fraud on social media, Dr. Yakubu explained.

“Social media offers people the ability to be anonymous, whereby they are able to generate other people’s pictures, use fake names or other people’s names to create fake accounts while posing as those individuals they don’t even know, which makes social media a hotspot for fraudsters.”

To mitigate these issues, Dr. Yakubu explains that the current structure, which is to simply fine social media platforms in cases where their platforms were used for financial fraud, is not enough.

“The penalties these platforms pay are nothing compared to the amount of money they make, so at the end of the day, the penalties are not deterrents enough for them to ensure that people do not have social media accounts until we put up the right and correct identity,” Dr. Yakubu said.

This story is produced under the Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) Fellowship of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) and Co-Develop in partnership with Kano Focus online Newspaper.