15th August, 2014
The National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC) said on Thursday that it had remitted N537 Million to the National Lottery Trust Fund (NLTF) in the first half of 2014.
The Chairman, Board of the NLRC, Damian Dodo, announced this at a news conference to underscore the achievements of the board since it was inaugurated one year ago in Abuja.
He explained that money was part of the total remittance of more than N4 billion to NLTF since the commission was established.
“In 2013, N712.83 was remitted to the fund and already more than N537,30 has been remitted in the first half of 2014; total remittance to trust fund is in excess of N4 billion.”
Dodo said the National Lottery Act 2005 required that for any lottery game or promotional lottery, 50 per cent of the proceeds should go for prizes while 20 per cent was remitted to NLTF.
He said the 20 per cent was for administration of ‘Good Cause Projects’ that directly affected the lives of the citizens.
NAN reports that ‘good cause’ fund is money that is removed from lottery proceeds and put into government coffers and used for execution of social projects.
The chairman said the President had for the first time approved the execution of good cause projects in the area of grassroots sports development in selected primary schools across the country.
“This will boost sports development and the discovery of young sporting talents across the country.
“We are aware that perception of the public towards the contribution of lottery to national development will be positive once they see the fund’s activities in their communities,” he said.
Dodo said other countries had used modern lottery to improve their economy and promote development through generation of employment opportunities and raising revenues for government through contributions by lottery operators.
He said that leaving lottery unregulated in the country in the past had created disorder in the industry as operators equated it to fraud, scams, cheating and other vices.
“The quest is to bring sanity in the business, protect the public against unethical practices and bring lottery under the ambit of the law.
It was also to eradicate corrupt practices and rid it of quackery that informed the establishment of the commission,” he said.
Dodo said Nigeria was sitting on a large market waiting to be fully exploited looking at national demographic statistics.
According to him, the last commonwealth game in UK was financed with funds from lottery and that Morocco in 2012 posted revenue contribution from lottery to the central government to the tune of 15 million dollars.
The chairman said that the factors that drive lottery market are population and stable economy.
“With a population of over 160 million and an economy growing at six to seven per cent, Nigeria is sitting on a gold mine yet to be tapped.
“The commission is aware of these enormous potentials and therefore ready to fully maximise the gains in the sector; it is necessary to get the full cooperation of the general public in that regard,” he said.
He said the commission had only given 14 companies lottery licenses to operate in the country.
Dodo advised the public to seek information from the commission across the country on any lottery scheme they doubted.
“People should report promptly when they feel shortchanged and should avoid the temptation of falling victim to fraudsters.
“This is because one cannot win a game he or she has not played,” he said.