The Federal Government is eyeing over 10 million jobs in the lottery and gaming industry, the Minister of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs, Zephaniah Jisalo, said on Saturday.
The minister, who described the lottery as a “wealth generator”, pledged the government’s commitment to improving the industry in order to make it more beneficial to Nigerians and boost government revenue.
Jisalo spoke at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos during the flag-off of the second phase of the school empowerment programme of the Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu, Mr Femi Gbajabiamila, tagged: “Back to School Jump Start Project”.
The programme, in partnership with the National Lottery Trust Fund (NLTF), featured Gbajabiamila’s donation of e-learning equipment, including laptops, android tablets, stationeries, and sanitation materials to hundreds of pupils of 46 schools in the Surulere Federal Constituency.
The minister, who was represented by NLTF’s Executive Secretary, Dr. Bello Maigari, hailed the trust fund for backing the “well-conceived” idea to help schools equip students with modern educational materials to enable achieve academic excellence and uplift education to global standard.
Jisalo said: “The funding of the 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. This has tremendously improved the standard of learning and provided an environment conducive for learning in public schools across Surulere Federal Constituency.
“It is important for the management of the benefiting public schools to ensure that the provision of these instructional and educational materials is judiciously utilised to achieve the desired goal of a better standard of learning and an environment that is conducive for learning.
“Lottery is a wealth generator. 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 holds a great promise for Nigeria in raising enormous revenues and creating job opportunities for youths and help actualise the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led government’s Renewed Hope agenda.
“I am delighted to inform you that the government will provide the National Lottery Trust Fund and other relevant agencies the necessary support to improve all policy frameworks required to change the face of the lottery and gaming industry in the country by significantly increasing lottery revenue to the government in a bid to make the lottery more productive and beneficial to Nigerians.
“Accordingly, all persons and organisations licensed to engage in national lottery business should be ready to meet their statutory obligations to avoid being sanctioned.
“Consequently, the government is committed to ensuring that returns obtainable from other non-oil sources of revenues are maximised, hence lottery is one of such alternative revenue sources that this government has identified and is determined to make more productive and sustainable.
“As the sector becomes firmly established, it is our expectation that Pottery will be included in the strategic plans of the nation”.
Gbajabiamila, who was represented by Fuad Kayode-Laguda, a nominated candidate to replace the former House of Representatives Speaker, urged the pupils and their schools to make good use of the materials.
He said: “It gives me great pleasure that the back-to-school programme has achieved a lot because all the schools reached out to last year put into good use all the equipment given to them”.
Head of the initiative’s planning committee, Adaku Apugo, said the programme was designed to address the vulnerabilities of the public education system laid bare by the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said this had impacted the lives of 46 schools in the constituency, though the challenges remained.
“The Jump Start project phase II implementation has identified the following four strategic priority areas to make this intervention a success:
•Classroom infrastructure;
•Sanitary facilities;
•Stationery; and
•The deployment of a national Learning Management System (LMS) for e-learning.
“These priority areas constitute a comprehensive hierarchy of the challenges faced by the public educational system and the solutions that prepare us for the future”, Apugo added.
