Nigerian House suspends lottery activities

A committee has ordered the NCC and the NLRC to end all existing contracts between lottery operators and GSM companies.

Nigeria.- The House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee that was investigating the activities of telecoms operators and vendors has reportedly ordered the National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to end all existing lottery contracts between Nigerian operators and GSM companies.

As revealed by This Day, Hon. Ahmed Abu, chairman of the committee, said that the existing contracts that are now suspended were created in a breach of the National Lottery Act, therefore they were illegal. During a meeting with the officials related to the issue, the committee chairman told the parties involved that they needed to find a solution or either have it resolved publicly at a hearing.

The news outlet shared the information that the revenue stipulated was 50 percent to the winner, whilst 30 percent to the operator and 20 to the regulators. However, lottery operators teamed up with GSM companies in order to further improve their winnings, even though it was legally wrong. Moreover, the telecoms collected 70 percent of the total share, only leaving operators and the local commission with 30 percent to share between them. At the same time, the operators said that they weren’t involved when deciding the number of the share that the telecoms collected. Ahmed Abu said that both parties should end the contracts with an immediate effect.