Politics News

FG asks EFCC to recover N100bn from lottery operators

The Federal Government has asked the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to recover over N100bn allegedly owed by lottery operators.

The Executive Secretary, National Lottery Trust Fund, Bello Maigari, who disclosed this on Tuesday also said that EFCC had recovered a total sum of N833m as revenue from lottery operators who refused to remit due taxes to its coffers.

He said the country’s current lottery market size estimated at over N2tn while the Fund had received a total of N11.2bn from inception in 2005 to date.

Maigari said the Fund was already engaging the EFCC on the issue.

He made these known in his presentation at a stakeholders meeting with the House of Representatives Committee on Inter-Governmental Affairs in Abuja on Tuesday.

He said, “Our in-house assessment revealed that over N100bn is being held illegally by lottery operators and betting companies as outstanding liabilities yet to be remitted to the Trust Fund.

“Our recent constructive and collaborative efforts with the EFCC and the National Lottery Regulatory Commission are beginning to yield positive results.

“At least, for now, we can confidently affirm that lottery operators and gaming companies have shortchanged government of billions of revenues and it is only fair if these defaulting entities are prosecuted for gross misconduct and economic sabotage of the nation.

“Current engagement with the EFCC yielded so far about N833m but we were informed that more funds are being recovered by the commission.

“Our records also show that of the N7.8bn remitted to the Trust Fund by the core licensees, about N6.5bn representing about 84 per cent of these proceeds were contributed by Premier Lotto Limited.

“It is very important to highlight the performance of this company, even though they are expected to do better than that. At least, they were able to make consistent returns over the years; otherwise, the situation would have been more drastic and different.”

Other remittances, he said, came from R & S Lotto with N700m; Winners Golden Chance Limited, N409m; Gab Lotto, N32m and Western Lotto Nigeria Limited, N67m.

 

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