Claim:
Kayode Ogunlowo, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara State, alleged that the Kwara State Government spent ₦33 billion to renovate Kwara Hotel.

Verdict:
Official records show that ₦27.7 billion has been allocated between 2023 and 2025 for the rehabilitation of Kwara Hotel. While multiple reports confirm that about ₦13 billion had been spent by the end of 2024, there is no evidence that spending has reached ₦33 billion. The claim is exaggerated and misleading.

The Full Story 

Election seasons in Nigeria often heighten political tension, with claims and counterclaims emerging around government projects and spending. In Kwara State, the rehabilitation of the iconic Kwara Hotel has become one such flashpoint.

Recently, APC chieftain Kayode Ogunlowo, in an interview with ThisDay, alleged:

“Instead of pursuing innovative, income-generating projects, the government prefers to spend ₦33 billion on renovating Kwara Hotel, a project with no real return value, except as a likely conduit pipe for mismanagement and embezzlement.”

The rehabilitation of Kwara Hotel was awarded in 2023 to Craneburg Construction Company Limited by Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq’s administration, with a projected completion timeline of 24 months.

This ₦33 billion claim was also echoed earlier by another APC stalwart, Iliyasu Ibrahim Moro, and amplified in media reports, including Sahara Reporters. Moro argued that constructing an entirely new hotel in the Government Reserved Area (GRA) would cost less than the alleged amount.

The controversy gained further traction when the Elites Network for Sustainable Development (ENetSuD) raised concerns on Facebook in August 2025, asking:

“Is the Kwara Hotel contract sum now over ₦30 billion? Considering the budgetary allocations and releases for the project in successive years, when will it be completed? What is the actual revised contract sum?”

These claims and concerns prompted NDRFactCheck to investigate.

Verification

Publicly available budget documents reveal the following allocations:

• 2023: ₦4.66 billion was budgeted for the rehabilitation of Kwara Hotel.
• 2024: ₦8.5 billion was initially allocated, but later revised upward to ₦13 billion. Of this, about ₦6.5 billion was spent between January and September 2024.

Kwara State 2024 budget as approved

2025: ₦10 billion was approved for the continuation of the project

Kwara State 2025 budget as approved

This brings the total allocation across three years (2023–2025) to ₦27.7 billion.

Data source: Kwara State Government official portal. Table by NDRCheck

Conclusion

Budgetary evidence confirms that ₦27.7 billion has been allocated so far to the Kwara Hotel rehabilitation project between 2023 and 2025. Although ₦13 billion was reportedly spent up to the end of 2024, there is no verifiable proof that total spending has reached ₦33 billion as claimed.

Verdict: The claim that the Kwara State Government has spent ₦33 billion on Kwara Hotel is false, exaggerated, and misleading.

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