Kwara state Govt. recounts need to obtain 10bn loan

The Kwara State government has thrown more light on the reasons it planned to obtain N10billion loan from a commercial bank to complete some development projects instead of taking bond from the capital market.

Speaking with journalists in Ilorin, on Sunday, the state Commissioner for Planning and Economic Development, Tunde Adeoti, and the Special Assistant to the Governor on Investment, Policy, and Strategies, Yomi Ogunsola, said that the present administration resolved to go for loan from a commercial bank instead of accessing the remaining N13billion bond out of the N30billion planned to be obtained from the capital market because the processes and certain other factors, he said, had made the former to be cheaper than the latter.

The governor's aides also explained the projects done with the N17 billion bond taken by the immediate past administration and the projects planned to be completed with the planned N10 billion loan.

Ogunsola, who was a part of the previous administration, said that some of the projects were discontinued by the previous administration because the foreign partners in the sponsorship of the projects were not forthcoming on their counterpart funding.

He also explained that after the state had accessed the N17billion bond, there was a total capital market crash with the effect that companies were no longer investing as they were financially handicapped.

The governor also said that cost of some of the projects increased tremendously from what had been estimated, adding that the projects that were affected by these factors included Kwara Truck Plaza, Commercial Agriculture phase II, Asa Dam Mixed Use and construction of a new state secretariat.