Yemisi Izuora
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), is introducing new innovations to boost lottery business in Nigeria as it has concluded plans to license telecom companies to host lotteries on their networks
Prof. Umar Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, said this during the review of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between NCC and National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC) on Monday in Abuja.
“Very soon we are going to license our telecomunicators to host lotteries on telecom networks and because the network are regulated by the NCC, we need to be involved.
“That is why the NCC has to be involved from the very beginning to ensure that our operators who will be participating in hosting the lottery services have the capacity to do so.
“The service you are about to introduce will add additional burden to the network and the NCC is always concerned that any burden on the telecommunication’s infrastructure may conspire to degrade quality of service.
“We are very much concerned that this does not happen. Our operators that will be participating in your lotteries have the capacity to host this additional very important service because of the empowerment it will be bringing in the country.
“What you are doing rhymes in two places of the eight-point agenda of the NCC in the area of strategic collaboration and partnership with other agencies of government and in the area of protecting and empowering the consumer,” he said.
Danbatta said the hosting of the lottery in the telecom network would empower the Nigerian telecommunication service consumers who may be among the many that would participate in the lottery.
He said NLRC and NCC have an existing Memorandum of Understanding since 2011 which was due for review every four years.
“The whole idea is to cooperate in order to provide the environment with facilities so to speak for the lottery commission to host lotteries in the country and because lotteries all over the world are electronically driven,’’ he said.
Earlier, the Director-General of NLRC, Mr Lanre Gbajabiamila, said the signing of the MoU between the two commissions would regulate telecommunications aspect of lottery in Nigeria.
“We had committees set up and worked together with NCC to make sure that everything is in place.
“We have also met with the operators to have a better understanding and to let them know the dos and don’ts of what we need to have in place.
“ I believe with this it will be easy for all the stakeholders involved to have the ease of doing business especially when it comes to lottery and gaming industry.