NCC, Lottery commission sign MoU over Telcos in lottery

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has signed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC) to use telecommunications networks for the conduct of electronic lotteries in the country.

The two government agencies reviewed the MoU they signed in 2011 in line with a provision that stipulates four-year renewal of the pact.

The MoU was also to enable the two agencies to synergise in order to eliminate multiple regulations and to ensure whatever the telecommunications operators came up with as a lottery was free of fraud.

Speaking after signing the document on behalf of NCC, the Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, explained that the use of telecommunications for additional services such as lottery would add additional burden to the networks, adding that the commission was concerned that any burden on the telecommunication’s infrastructure may degrade the system.

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He said, “There is no better infrastructure available for the conduct of lotteries in this country than the telecommunications infrastructure. Now, as you are aware, bringing any additional service on the infrastructure adds additional burden to the networks.

“Therefore, the commission is concerned that any additional service to the networks could or may degrade quality of service. That is why the NCC has to be involved from the very beginning to ensure that our operators who will be participating in hosting lottery services have the capacity to do so.”

On his part, the Director-General of NLRC, Lanre Gbajabiamila, said the collaboration between the two commissions would enable them to work unanimously for the development of the country.

“The way the industry is right now, the service providers use the telecommunications platforms to do lottery and gaming hence we need to have this collaboration to improve the process and integrity.

“Everything is now technology-driven. There is no how the commission can do it alone. The commission has a platform where all the operators are connected to our system, whereby we are able to actually see the transactions and what is being discharged to the actual winners.

“We also have a process where they give us a monthly report of who won and how much was paid and retained. It is a working process and with this collaboration with the NCC, the commission will be in a better place to regulate better gaming and lottery services,” he said.

 

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