The Federal Government has said that the Extra Ministerial Committee constituted to recover the over N100 billion revenue owed it by lottery operators would be activated within two weeks.
The Minister of Special Duties and Inter-governmental Affairs, Dr. George Akume, said this Saturday in Abuja at a meeting of stakeholders in the lottery sector.
He expressed displeasure over the continued failure of lottery operators nationwide to remit appropriate revenue to National Lottery Trust Fund (NLTF) as required by extant rules.
The minister said that government had applied enough diplomacy in order to encourage operators in the lottery industry to build their business and contribute to national development, but they have abused the gesture.
The former Benue State governor also expressed annoyance that some major players in the industry shunned a stakeholders meeting scheduled by his office to resolve the infractions.
He, however, vowed to sanction such operators that have refused to respect the laws regulating their business environment.
“Those interested in lottery business must accept the global standards which the country was aligning with. Since the enactment of the Lottery Act in 2005, the industry had lacked proper coordination.
“The National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC) was putting finishing touches to a Central Monitoring System designed to curb fraud in the industry and ensure sustainable revenue generation for the government.
“Since 2005 lottery business has not been properly organised. It has been one step forward and ten step backward. Lottery business must be done in Nigeria the way it is done elsewhere,” he said.
On his part, the Director General, NLRC, Lanre Gbajabiamila, said the commission was working on a Bill seeking to amend the Lottery Act to address all concerns.
