Lottery Revenue Will Create 10m Jobs, Fund Education – Minister

The federal government yesterday said it was committed to channel revenues generated from the National Lottery Trust Fund (NLTF) to create employment and fund education across the country.

It also disclosed that plans were underway to create 10 million jobs from the nation’s lottery and the gaming industry.

Minister of special duties and inter-governmental affairs, Mr Zaphaniah Jisalo, disclosed this at the Back to School Jump Start Project (Phase 2) with theme; ‘No school left behind in Surulere’, held at the indoor hall of the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, Lagos.

The initiative was sponsored by the Chief of Staff to the President, Mr Femi Gbajabiamila, in collaboration with the National Lottery Trust Fund.

The minister, who was represented by the executive secretary of NLTF, Dr. Bello Maigari, disclosed that the federal government planned to revitalise the Trust Fund by employing 10 million Nigerians.

He said: “The idea to help jump start schools by equipping our students with state of the art educational materials for academic excellence and improving the standard of education to international standard is a well-conceived programme.

“The funding of implementation of the second phase of this programme by the National Lottery Trust Fund is meant to build on the successes of the first phase which has tremendously improved the standard of learning and provided a conducive learning environment of public schools across Surulere Federal Constituency. On this note, let me reiterate that it is important that the management of the benefiting public schools must ensure the provision of these instructional and educational materials are judiciously utilized across the benefiting public schools so as to achieve the desired goal of a better standard of learning and conducive learning environment.

“It is therefore; on the strength of this effort that I encourage the fund to continue on this laudable path as we all strive to elevate basic education in Nigeria to internationally acceptable standard. It is also very important to ensure the full monitoring and evaluation of the project so as to that outcomes envisaged for the learning programme are delivered for the benefit of Nigerians.”

On government’s plan to use lottery as a wealth creator, he said: “The industry has generated quite a large number of jobs for Nigerians in the last few years a number that is likely to grow to over 10 million due to the population and size of the Nigerian economy. Though it is not yet a reality, we are doing everything humanly possible to revitalise this industry which hold great promise for Nigeria in raising enormous revenues and creating job opportunities for youths and help actualise President Bola  Tinubu-led government’s Renewed Hope Agenda.