The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), and the National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC), yesterday signed a revised Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), with provisions to deter unapproved lottery and gaming practices on telecommunications platforms through information and intelligence sharing.
The Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, said the MoU is in sync with the Commission’s Strategic Vision Plan (SVP), and will impact the gaming industry.
He said the move will also promote fair practices in the industry for the protection of telecommunications consumers in relation to lottery and gaming activities.
He said the collaboration is in line with the provisions of Commission’s SVP 2021-2025, which provides for the facilitation of strategic partnerships and collaboration with other bodies to enhance service delivery.
He said: “The initial MoU expired in 2022, amendments and modifications have been made since no MoU is cast in stone, especially given the industry’s dynamic nature.”
…unapproved lottery and gaming activities and practices undermine the integrity of domestic and global gaming markets to the detriment of stakeholders in addition to undermining consumer confidence in these markets.
The Director-General, NLRC, Lanre Gbajabiamila, expressed confidence that the MoU will yield favourable outcomes in curbing illegal online gambling, and expressed the hope that the collaboration will achieve their objectives in the interest of gaming stakeholders.
He noted how unapproved lottery and gaming activities and practices undermine the integrity of domestic and global gaming markets to the detriment of stakeholders in addition to undermining consumer confidence in these markets, hence the collaboration with the NCC to arrest such tendencies.
Earlier, the Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management, Adeleke Adewolu, said the MoU is designed to address recent technology information-sharing capabilities and consumer satisfaction as well as to enhance areas of co-regulation in line with the Federal Government’s digital economy mandate.
The new MoU replaces the first signed by both organizations, which expired in 2022.
It provides complementary approaches to deter unapproved lottery/gaming practices on telecommunications platforms through information and intelligence sharing. This is in recognition of how unapproved lottery and gaming activities and practices undermine the integrity of domestic and global gaming markets to the detriment of stakeholders in addition to undermining consumer confidence in these markets.
Under the terms, following requests from NLRC and NCC shall endeavour to block or disable illegal lottery gaming operators on the telecommunications service providers’ platform in Nigeria and NLRC.
The document was developed by a Joint Implementation Committee (JIC) comprising representatives of NCC and NLRC to implement the MoU and other matters that promote collaboration between both organizations in their regulatory functions.
