By Dapo Akinrefon

The Federal government has said its projected income from the lottery Industry is N100 billion.

Executive Secretary of National Lottery Trust Fund, NLTF, Bello Maigari, spoke Thursday in Abuja, during the presentation of sporting kits to staff of the agency.

According to him, the industry is worth almost two trillion naira. The fact that the industry has gone this far is due to the level playing ground established by government. Lottery and gaming businesses are flourishing across the nook and crannies of this country.

He said: “For instance, Betja, a betting platform is in the remotest part of the country. This is to tell you how wide and far lottery and gaming has grown in the country.

“But sadly, the return to government coffers has been poor but fortunately in the last few years, government has reawaken and we are currently working to establish a Central Monitoring System (CMS) which will see to the streamlining of revenue that will accrue to government.

“We are looking at the possibility of getting about N100b annually from the industry by the time the CMS is established and managed for the good of all stakeholders.”

He further explained that the sporting kits given to staff members of the agency is to stimulate their interest in sports, in preparation for the Federation of Public Service Games, FEPSGA.

He said: “Sport is a productive workforce. We are trying to ensure that from our own side that our staff remain healthy and continue to participate in sport so that we will represent this country in future international games.

“Moreover, our staff have been doing extremely well. We are also looking at volleyball to enhance our participation in FEPSGA.”