2. Today’s event has further re-affirmed my faith in the good leadership in the Fund especially with the swift response by the Executive Secretary and his able Management team in providing the required resources to equip and upgrade the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of this General Hospital into a standard COVID-19 Isolation Centre to cater for the growing cases of corona virus infections in the State. The fact that this intervention is made at this critical time of an emergency in the history of this country is highly commendable.

3.​​Permit me to use this medium to also extol the remarkable progress made by National Lottery Trust Fund in the implementation of its approved lottery good causes intervention programme in health and disaster management so far.

4.​​Your Excellency, Distinguished guests, we are all aware of the dangers posed by this virus, and its capacity to destroy human lives and its negative impact on the global economy. Recent statistics revealed that COVID-19 pandemic is responsible to the death of over 113,000 people globally, out of which Nigeria accounted for about 10 and these numbers are growing rapidly by the day. As at date, over two million people across the globe are confirmed with the disease. These statistics are alarming when bench-marked with current happenings in the global economy. This is therefore, a wake-up call to all in leadership positions to start working actively and collaboratively in containing the spread and minimizing the scourge of this virus in the country.

5.​​It is therefore, on the strength of this effort that I encourage the Fund to extend this laudable interventions to other isolation centres across the country and ensure the full Monitoring and Evaluation of the process inorder to keep track of the utilization of the facility so that project outcomes envisaged for the programme are delivered for the benefit of Nigerians.

6. Distinguished guests, we are also well aware of the huge potentials of lottery as a wealth generator and its impact on the growth of the economy. Over the years across jurisdictions, wealth generated from lottery has been used to transform societies through the provision of infrastructural and other socio-economic development across the world to which Nigeria is not an exception. I was told the successful completion of the 2014 Intervention in grassroot sports development by the Trust Fund and the current ongoing interventions in health, sinking of bore-holes, revitalization of our basic education infrastructure across the country are landmark achievements that has set good precedence for today’s event.

7.​Given the above indices, one can easily appreciate the enormous prospect that lottery holds for a country like Nigeria, with a population approaching200 million people and the largest economy in Africa. Accordingly, government will do everything humanly possible to revitalize this industry that hold great promise for Nigeria in raising enormous revenues.

8. By today’s commissioning ceremony and the subsequent ones to follow shortly across the six geo-political zones, the National Lottery Trust Fund has proved to Nigerians that lottery is working, and it is now ready to rise up to its statutory mandate, and consequently, Nigerians should get ready for a new dimension of the Next Level Agenda.

9. This Administration led by President Muhammadu Buhari is committed and ready to find, harness, and apply every available resource at its disposal to the benefit of the generality of the Nigerian people. Having made a careful study of history and happenings in other jurisdictions as stated earlier in this address, the Federal Government is convinced of the enormous potential which lottery holds for the development of this nation. Government is therefore determined to give full attention to the industry to ensure that it performs to meet fully the revenue and developmental aspirations of the nation.

10. Government’s commitment for the immediate take-off and implementation of the Central Monitoring System that will remove all inefficiencies in the lottery industry while at the same time strengthening the capacity of the two agencies created under the National Lottery Act 2005 (i.e. the National Lottery Regulatory Commission and the National Lottery Trust Fund) to perform their functions effectively is no longer in doubt, as all the necessary approval for its take-off has been secured.

11. The partnerships and inter-agency collaborations between the NLRC, the NLTF and the EFCC which is in line with Executive Order 001 is beginning to show great promise, as backlog of remittances from licensees are being recovered, while also ensuring prompt remittance from operators and permit holders in line with the extant law.

12.​Accordingly, all persons and organizations licensed to engage in national lottery business should be ready to meet up with their statutory obligation to avoid being sanctioned. Consequently, we are committed in ensuring that returns obtainable from other non-oil sources of revenues are maximized, hence lottery is one of such alternative revenue sources that this Government has identified and is determined to make it more productive and sustainable. As the sector becomes firmly established, it is our expectation that lottery will be included in the strategic plans of the nation.

13. I congratulate Your Excellency therefore on this very special occasion of the hand-over of this facility to Katsina State government and hoping that the hospital Management and the state would put the equipment to proper use for the benefit of the good people of Daura, its environs and the state at large, particularly at this critical time. It is equally our hope that this intervention and subsequent ones in the pipeline across the six geo-political zones will be the cause of continuing celebrations for Nigerians in the near future.

14. Thank you for listening and God bless.