Federal Govt Issues Licenses To Citizens Devt Lottery

The federal government has issued a license to Citizens Development Lottery Limited, operators of the citizens’ charity raffle.

The director general of the National Lottery Regulatory Commission, Lanre Gbajabiamila, while presenting the license in Abuja yesterday, called on the organisation’s managers to adhere strictly to the guidelines provided by the commission.

Gbajabiamila who charged them to be more diligent in carrying out their activities across the country, commended citizens for heeding the rules of the since inception, even as he pledged the commission’s readiness to provide the necessary assistance whatever the need arises.

“For you people to have gotten to this stage, I am sure you might have gone through the due diligence of the processes of the application, which you have come this far. You have done some lottery in the past so you should be familiar with the rules of the game.

“Keep to the rules of engagement, the commission takes compliance very high, we won’t hesitate to revoke or suspend your license if you are not compliant enough. Collecting your license today is a plus for your team because some people do not go far with their applications.

“Do not hesitate to let the commission know anywhere you are having problems in terms of your operations so that you will not have a problem with us the regulator,” he said.

The group head, Citizens Development Lottery Limited, operators of the citizens’ charity raffle, Nick Agule, while responding said the organisation will not do anything less than the best.

“We have had a relationship with the commission in the past, where we ran a promo and everything went successful. We run the draw openly on TV but COVID-19 disrupted the exercise,  at each draw the commission was responsible enough to send a representative to be in attendance.

“All the monetary prices were paid, nobody that either participated or watched will say we didn’t comply with the rules of the game, we will keep up the good work. Now that we have upgraded to having our full license, we can only get better. Our standards are not going to drop,” he said.

Agule explained that the citizens will build platforms for the generation of funding for charitable works across the country.

“We are going to build Nigeria’s platforms for generation of funding for charitable works, so for us citizens, there are four buckets that all the monies will fall into, there is the statutory bucket, price money, cost of operating the scheme, and the last bucket is whatever is left, which is going to be charity work.

“Promoters and citizens are going to benefit more because whatever they have put in, we will make the platform come alive. The charity bucket will be used for building schools, clinics, and other projects that will have a direct impact on the people in all communities,” he said.