Nigeria imports N25bn foreign lottery technology annually- Adekunle

Operators of lottery business in the country spend an average of N25 billion annually to acquire, deploy and maintain lottery technology.

Niyi Adekunle, managing director, and CEO of Lotgrand – operator of Grandlotto Yellow Terminal brand – disclosed this in Lagos adding that lottery has emerged as one of the most popular forms of gaming in the world, while his company has revolutionized the lotto business in Nigeria with the Machine Number Series (MNS).

“We can save huge foreign exchange for the benefit of the economy if our technology sector can support our business with the right technology software and hardware,” he said.

He explained that technology hardware component alone constitutes 40 percent of lottery operators’ technology spends, adding that “Payment for the acquisition of software licenses and support services constitute another 20 and 40 percent of our annual technology budget spends respectively.”

According to him, the game has more followers than online casino and “it is easy to play”, adding that lotteries are extremely thrilling, and “promise players good profit”.

Lottery operators strive to make these games even more fun by utilizing technology which would witness an exponential increment in 2017.

“I see more players in the industry spending huge on instant game inventory management systems, lottery gaming systems, retail point-of-sale technology, mobile apps, USSD platform, data and communications links and internet platforms,” he stressed.

He said that MNS has become a differentiating factor for the brand through the use of technology, and urged indigenous IT players to focus their innovations on the lottery industry and compete for a big portion of the market share so that the local economy can reap from the hyper growth of the lottery industry.

He stated that through its MNS, the company paid a bonus of over N100 million to a lotto player from Ijebu Ode in Ogun State.