Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Professor Umar Danbatta, said today, January 18, at the signing of the MoU, that it will impact the gaming industry, adding that it is in tandem with the Commission’s Strategic Vision Plan (SVP) “and is in a bid to promote fair practices in the industry for the protection of telecommunications consumers in relation to lottery and gaming activities.
He said that the collaboration is also in line with the provisions of Commission’s SVP, 2021-2025, which provides for facilitation of strategic partnership and collaboration with other bodies to enhance service delivery.
“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.”
This was even as the Director General of NLRC, Lanre Gbajabiamila expressed confidence that the MoU will yield favourable outcomes in curbing illegal online gambling as he shared his hope that NCC and NLRC will achieve their intentions in the interest of gaming stakeholders.
He said that unapproved lottery and gaming activities and practices have been undermining 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 Commission to arrest such tendencies.”
Earlier, the Executive Commissioner (Stakeholder Management), Barrister Adeleke Adewolu said that the MoU was 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.
According to the NCC Chief spokesman, Reuben Mouka, the new MoU replaces one that was 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 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 agreement, following requests from NLRC, 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.
