Anambra State Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Charles Soludo, has concluded plans to flag off the construction of a 10-storey luxury hotel in Awka, the Anambra State capital. The hotel construction is expected to gulp at least N66.2 billion according to provisions captured in the Anambra 2024-2026 budget estimates.
This was made known by the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Awka Capital Territory Development Authority (ACTDA), Mr. Osita Onuko. According to the ACTDA Boss, the construction of the 10-storey luxury hotel is part of the Soludo administration’s strategic efforts to ‘catalyze the economic transformation’ of the State
Mr. Ossy Onuko stated that the multi-billion Naira 10-storey hotel to be known as the Awka International Convention Hotel would be one of the signature projects of the Soludo administration, and added that the construction of the hotel will commence in the first quarter of 2024, after its foundation laying by the Governor.
The ACTDA MD went further to say that the hotel will be a ‘brand hotel’ and a gateway for investors and tourists, as well as a destination for them in Awka.
“It is going to do for Awka what the Transcorp Hilton did for Abuja, because the Transcorp Hilton was built in Abuja when Abuja was all bush, but it came and catalyzed the economic development of Abuja. So will this hotel also do for Awka”, Onuko added.
The construction of the hotel is coming at a time of increased economic difficulties and growing cost of living. Many in Anambra State have queried the propriety of constructing such a hotel with so much public funds when there are other pressing infrastructural need facing the state.
Already, Awka the state capital territory is not lacking in top class hotels located across different parts of the city.