From Okwe Obi, Abuja
Due to the paucity of funds, the federal government has launched a national lottery game in partnership with Elrae Technologies to rake in revenue to finance the budget and create wealth for citizens.
The government, through the Minister of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs, George Akume, who spoke on Monday at the launch of the National Lottery Logo, in Abuja, explained that the initiative would widen and boost the country’s revenue streams.
According to him, the idea of the game had been in the pipeline since the enactment of the National Lottery Act in 2005.
Akume further explained that most developed countries make billions of dollars from national games, to sustain their economy.
“The most important benefit of the National Game is that it translates to significant employment opportunities in line with Mr President’s directives to all MDAs to initiate programmes that generate employment for our teeming youths,” he stated.
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“For example, we learnt that the Chinese used proceeds from gaming to building the Great Wall of China to deter foreign invaders. Today, the Great Wall of China is a tourist attraction and a national asset.
“As we all are aware, Nigeria is currently exploring other means to widen and strengthen its revenue streams in order to fund its annual budgets rather than resort to borrowing. Hence the compelling need for the Federal Government to look beyond Oil and Gas, taxation etc. to sustain the Nigerian economy.”
On his part, the Director-General of the National Regulatory Commission, Lanre Gbajabiamila, said the Nigeria National Game was birthed to lift millions of Nigerians out of poverty.
“This is a project that has been in the making for so many for a long time painstaking thinking about it, seeing how we can bring into onto the national level.
“This is something that I personally thought about doing when I was the CEO of Lagos State lotteries bought it as we wanted to do the core games.
“But as God has it, again, that national submitted a bigger platform for us to showcase the Nigerian gaming industry, whereby we can be a force to be reckoned with, in West Africa, the most important globally, because we have the numbers we have the people,” he added.