President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime says it is unhappy with the “slow” growth of the lottery sector.

The federal government blamed operators’ “nonchalant attitudes” for it.

George Akume, Minister of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs, stated this in an interactive meeting with stakeholders and lottery operators in the country on Friday.

In addition, Mr Akume noted that the lottery sector had yet to operate by international best practices.

According to him, the Nigerian lottery system had lagged behind other countries to utilise the proceeds from the industry for national development.

“I have been having a series of meetings with the lottery operators in Nigeria since I took over the ministry as the minister. All these meetings have been geared toward ensuring that the lottery industry in Nigeria is operated in accordance with international best practices.

“This requires full cooperation from all of you, but unfortunately, this has not been the case. We have had occasion to interact to effects the roadmap which we have prepared to enable the industry to play its roles in the economy of this country,” explained Mr Akume.

He warned that the government would no longer tolerate any attempt to undermine the integrity of the system.

The minister also assured the operators of the Central Monitoring System’s reorganisations in addition to other measures to monitor the activities of key players in the lottery sector.

“We have been talking about CMS for many years since the creation of the commission without being effective. This present administration will effect it as part of measures to monitor the system,” he said.

Responding, Chidubem Ugwunweze, who represented R&S LOTTO Ltd, complained of taxation by state governments as their major challenges, which had also contributed to their inability to remit their proceeds to the NLRC as expected.

“We are faced with challenges of taxations by the state governments who constantly ask us to pay for licences even as we have paid for licences to the commission. They are often threatened to close our businesses,” he said.

Mr Ugwunweze appealed to the minister and the commission to resolve the issues between the lottery operators and the state governments.

In his contribution, Lanre Gbajabiamila, the Director General of the NLRC, explained that the commission’s challenge had lingered for long, thereby posting difficult tasks to the system.

Mr Gbajabiamila stated, “It is a continuous challenge that has been in the pipeline for long. We have engaged the state regulators several times regarding the way forward.”

He added, “We are very much aware of the challenge, and I can assure you that we haven’t stopped on our engagement with the states. We are making efforts to put it into our bill that will be sent to the national assembly.” h

(NAN)