Kwara SEC Returns Control Of Kwara Hotel To BIT Ministry

The control and oversight of the Kwara Hotels should return to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Technology (BIT), as it did before it was placed under Harmony Holdings Ltd., according to a decision made by the KWARA State Executive Council.

The interventionist choice is a move to salvage the hotels from their ongoing problems, which include facility failure and enormous debts that have caused the Kwara Hotels to fall behind on paying their employees’ salaries. The government has been forced to pay the employees, notwithstanding the original plan, including the recent bailouts announced this week.

At the council meeting chaired by Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq on Friday, the council approved that all assets, liabilities, structures, workers, and operations of the hotel be taken over by the BIT Ministry.

The council approval followed deliberations on a memorandum presented by BIT Mallam Ibrahim Akaje.

The Council also directed that Ministries of Finance and Planning and Economic Development should henceforth make budgetary provisions for the repositioning and rebranding of the hotel to realise the objectives of the founding fathers.

The council similarly approved that BIT Ministry should take charge of the Ilorin Cargo Terminal Limited.

The once-successful Kwara Hotel, which was established by the administration of the late Brigadier General David Bamigboye, was initially placed under the Ministry of Commerce and Trade, which has recently metamorphosed to BIT.  It was last refurbished some 20 years ago.

The fortunes of the hotel have however nosedived over the past decade as its facilities collapsed amid mismanagement, pre-2019 debts to the tune of N500m, low revenue generation, and inability to pay staff salary.