The Federal Government said an Extra Ministerial Committee constituted to recover the about N100 billion revenue owed it by lottery operators would be activated within two weeks.
Minister of Special Duties and Inter-governmental Affairs, George Akume, disclosed this at a meeting of stakeholders in the lottery sector in Abuja.
Akume expressed displeasure over the continued failure of lottery operators nationwide to remit appropriate revenue to National Lottery Trust Fund as required by extant rules.
According to him, 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 was furious that major players in the industry shunned a stakeholders meeting scheduled by his office to resolve the infractions. He vowed to sanction such operators that have refused to repect the laws regulating their business environment.
Akume rescheduled the stakeholders’ meeting for next week, warning that those interested in lottery business must accept the global standards which the country was aligning with.
He lamented that since the enactment of the Lottery Act in 2005, the industry had lacked proper coordination.
He disclosed that the National Lottery Regulatory Commission 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 tend step backward. Lottery business must be done in Nigeria the way it is done elsewhere,”he stated.
In his remarks, director general, National Lottery Regulatory Commission, Lanre Gbajabiamila, said the Commission was working on a Bill seeking to amend the Lottery Act.
