By Daniel Tyokua
The Federal Government has issued license to Citizens Development Lottery Limited, operators of citizens charity raffle.
Presenting the license in Abuja, yesterday, the Director General, National Lottery Regulatory Commission, Lanre Gbajabimila called on the organisation’s managers to adhere strictly to the guidelines provided by the commission.
He charged them to be more diligence in carrying out their activities across the country.
The DG commended citizens raffle for heeding to the rules of the since inception, even as he pledged the commission’s readiness to provide the necessary assistance whatever the need arises.
Gbajabimila said: ” 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 compliance enough.
“Collecting your license today is a plus to your team because some people don’t go far with their application.Don’t hesitate to let the commission know anywhere you are having problem in terms of your operations, so that you won’t have problem with us the regulator” he said.
Responding, the group head, Citizens Development Lottery Limited, operators of citizens charity raffle, Nick Agule 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 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, no body that either participated or watch will say we didn’t comply with the rules of the game, we will keep 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”
Agule explained that the citizens will build Platforms for 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 in 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 a 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 of schools, clinic and other projects that will have direct impact on the people in all communities”
He said Citizens raffle was designed to raise funding for charitable works in the country, and the scheme will be based on the sell of tickets to Nigerians for a hundred naira each, “the little amount will be well used in building sustainable development projects across the country, like class room blocks, clinics, water projects, bridges and agriculture”
