REGULATE BUSINESS LOTTERY, NOT MANUFACTURING SECTOR, LCCI TELLS NLRC

By NAOMI UZOR
The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), has called on the National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC) to regulate the Business of lottery and not the business of manufacturing or production.

In a release by the Director General of LCCI, Mr Muda Yusuf, the operatives of the NLRC recently sealed the premises of multinational company and member of the Lagos Chamber in some locations in the country and with the support of the police, the commission arrested and detained the officials of the company.

LCCI said the mandate of the NLRC is to regulate the business of lottery and not the business of manufacturing or production. In a typical lottery transaction, a lottery ticket is purchased for the sole objective of winning a prize.  This is clearly not the case in this instance and other promotional activities of manufacturers.

'The Consumer Protection Council is already exercising oversight on promotional activities that involves raffles by companies to ensure the integrity of such exercise. The government should rationalize the number and streamline the activities of the multitude of regulatory agencies (some with overlapping mandates) in the economy to reduce the burden they currently constitute to business, the federal government should put in place a framework to exercise effective oversight over the regulatory agencies in the economy to curb their overbearing tendencies and that governments at all levels should adequately fund these agencies as many of them currently depend on fees and fines collected from investors to run their operations.

This creates the problem of imposition of prohibitive fees and charges on businesses.  The private sector has a statutory obligation to pay tax; but not the responsibility to fund regulatory agencies' he stated.

Muda urged the federal government to urgently restrain the NLRC from further tormenting and disrupting the activities of businesses, adding that the Inspector General of Police should ensure that officers and men of the Force are not used to carry out unwarranted closure of business premises as well as needless arrests and detention of investors by the regulatory agencies.