Fact-checking Kwara State Government’s Statement Over Non-Existent N800m Ranch Project
The Kwara State Government has said that it did not spend any N800 million on a livestock ranch at Malete, Moro LGA. The commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Oloruntoyosi Thomas in a press release on February 12, 2025, said that the state government had not spent any money on the proposed Malete ranch between 2022 and 2023.
This statement was released, in response to an AfriCAST investigation published on February 11, 2025 detailing how the state government had spent over 800 million naira on a non-existent ranch project. Several claims were identified in the statement including the Kwara state government insisting that it only spent N29,000,000 for essential services such as topographic survey, environmental impacts assessment, and drone flights across the Malete site for the Kwara Special Agro Industrial Processing Zone project dated February 28, 2022.
The commissioner also said that the other closest volume of government’s expenditure in that category was the payment of N779,506,155.08, on October 9, 2023, another counterpart funds for the Special Agroprocessing Zone (SAPZ).
A quick search revealed that this statement has been published on several platforms including here, here and here.
VERIFICATION
The construction of a ranch in Malete town was reflected in the Kwara State 2022 budget. Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, during the budget presentation, mentioned plans to fund a Ranch project, among other initiatives.
According to the statement released by Thomas, such a project does not exist and the government did not spend N800m on a ranch project. The commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development also said the only related expenditure in the said years was N29,000,000 spent in 2022 for essential services (topographic survey, environmental impacts assessment, and drone flights across the Malete site) at the Malete new site for the Kwara Special Agro Industrial Processing Zone project. This expenditure is dated 28 February, 2022.”
To verify the claims made, NV-A checked through the Budget Performance Report For Second Quarter (April-June) 2022, Kwara State Year 2022 Accountant General Report with Financial Statement and the
The statement and performance report revealed that the sum of N29,000,000 was quoted as the full actuals for the year 2022. However, there was also the sum of N860,005, 731 under the 2023 budget performance column and the line item was indicated as the state government’s contribution to the ranching project under the National Livestock Transformation Plan. Additionally, the programme description column clearly stated that it was for poultry, pig and micro livestock production. There were no line items indicating expenditure on items relating to ‘essential services,’ ‘topographic survey,’ ‘environmental impacts assessment,’ ‘drone,’ or ‘flights’ in the report.
Thomas was also quoted saying: “The closest volume of government’s expenditure in that category was the payment on 9 October, 2023 of N779,506,155.08 counterpart funds for the Special Agroprocessing Zone (SAPZ).”
NV-A’s search through the state government budget performance report for Q3, 2023 revealed that the SAPZ funding mentioned by the commissioner appeared under the capital expenditure table with the code ‘021500100100 – MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT’ and the description also read, ‘Livestock Development (State Contribution). SAPZ. Ranching Project at Malete.’ From this item description, it shows that the SAPZ was linked with the ranching project at Malete. However, the amount quoted as expended between Q1-Q3 is the same one quoted by AfriCAST in their report which is different from the amount stated by the commissioner in her press release statement. Meanwhile, there is no other line item in the budget performance related to SAPZ.
Source: Kwara State Government Budget Performance Report 2023 Q3
Further searches uncovered that SAPZ was also on the capital expenditure table of the state’s budget performance report for Q4 2023 with the project code ‘021500100100 – MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT’ and the description reads, ‘Livestock Development (State Contribution). SAPZ. Ranching Project at Malete,’As of the end of 2023, N874,680,442.00 has been expended on the said project for Q4.
According to the budget performance report from the state government, the amount spent on Livestock Development (State Contribution), SAPZ and Ranching Project at Malete between Q1-Q4 2023 totals N1,734,686,173.00, and this is more than the N779,506,155.08 quoted by Thomas.
CONCLUSION
The claims made by the commissioner as evidence to support her claim that the ranch project is yet to commence are MISLEADING. Findings from the Kwara state budget performance reports and financial statement for 2023 confirmed that a total of N1,734,686,173.00 has been spent as capital expenditure for the ranching project is Malete, Moro and it is linked to SAPZ and the National Livestock Transformation Project, NLTP whereas the N29,000,000 is the 2022 full year actuals in the 2023 budget performance report, for the same project.
