NIGERIA – The federal government of Nigeria through the National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC) has unsealed Nestlé Nigeria Plc headquarters, which was recently shut for alleged breach of National Lottery Act, 2005 and National Lottery Regulations, 2007.
The NLRC, which is an agency of the Federal Government, regulating sales promo operated by companies, noted that it resolved to reopen the conglomerate after its management agreed to sign an undertaking to pay up N65.16 million (US$179,000) regulation fees on N233.993 million (US$645,000) promotional lotteries it carried out between 2012 and 2014.
The Director General of the NLRC, Mr. Lanre Gbajabiamila stated that the federal government had shut the offices of the multinational food and beverage firm, located at 22-24 Industrial Avenue, Ilupeju area Lagos following hours of failed negotiations with its management.
According to the statement issued by NLRC, the conglomerate “had in 2009 carried out a promo lottery captioned Nestle Milo Scratch and Win”, valued at N10.92 million (US$30,000); another promo in 2012 captioned Buy Save and Win More Promo (Nestle New Year Shopper’s Combo) valued at N15 million (US$41,000).’’
‘’Yet another one in 2012, captioned “Super Market Back 2 School, valued at N20 million (US$55,000) and its 2014 promo, captioned “Year-End Shoppers Bag Promo, valued at N188 million (US$518,000).”
The commission claimed that all the promotional lotteries were carried out by Nestle Plc without authorisation of the National Lottery Regulatory Commission, as required by law; ignoring all attempts by the NLRC for those lotteries to be properly regularised, reports Beverage Industry News (NG).
It added that total value of the promotional lotteries was N233, 992, 500 (US$645,000) with total regulation fees of N65, 155, 365.00 (US$179,000).
Before the enforcement at Nestle, the Director-General of the commission had warned of the commission’s resolve to step-up its enforcement exercise against companies who were in violation of the lottery act.
In November 2018, the commission moved against Nigerian Breweries Plc, shutting its corporate office in Lagos and Abuja for what the commission said was a violation of the National Lottery Act of 2005 and failure of the brewing company to pay N326m (US$899, 000) fees on promotional lotteries carried out by the firm valued at N1.3bn (US$3.5m).
