Katsina is a city (formerly a city-state), and a Local Government Area in northern Nigeria, and is the capital of Katsina State. Katsina is located some 160 miles east of the city of Sokoto, and 84 miles northwest of Kano, close to the border with Niger. As of 2007, Katsina's estimated population was 459,022. The city is the centre of an agricultural region producing groundnuts, cotton, hides, millet and guinea corn, and also has mills for producing peanut oil and steel. The city is largely Muslim and the population of the city is mainly from the Fulani and Hausa ethnic groups. The former Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua was a nobleman of Katsina.