SET Plc: How a lottery company declared ₦4.2 billion revenue, yet a ₦168 million loss

Secure Electronic Technology Plc (SET Plc) runs one of Nigeria’s most visible lottery and gaming businesses. Its terminals are out there. Its licenses are active. And in 2025, it collected ₦4.24 billion in revenue from Nigerians playing games of chance.

That is real serious money. The kind of number that, in another company, in another story, would come with champagne and a press release.

Yet, SET Plc ended the year with a net loss of ₦166.8 million. The year before, it lost ₦121 million. The year before that, it lost more still. The accumulated losses on its balance sheet now stand at ₦2.80 billion: almost as large as the company’s entire share capital of ₦2.82 billion.

This is the story of a company that turns over billions and still cannot turn a corner. And the numbers, when you sit with them, raise serious questions about where the money is going.

IMG: SET Plc

Start with the income statement. Revenue in 2025 was ₦4.24 billion. This is reduced by 2.41% from ₦4.35 billion in 2024. The business is not collapsing, as it is generating cash flows. People are buying lottery tickets.

The problem sits directly below that line. The cost of sales (the direct cost of running the lottery and gaming products) was ₦3.92 billion. That leaves a gross profit of only ₦319.9 million. In percentage terms, that is a gross margin of just 7.5%.

For context, that means for every ₦100 of lottery revenue SET Plc collects, ₦92.50 immediately vanishes into costs before the company even pays a single administrative bill.

Income Statement Snapshot (FY 2025 vs FY 2024)

Then come the operating expenses. In 2024, operating expenses were ₦371 million. In 2025, they jumped to ₦502.8 million, a 35.5% surge in a year when revenue fell. The combination of those two movements is what turned a manageable situation into a deepening loss.

Read also: 6 discrepancies, ₦1.9B gap: Omatek’s 2025 financial report raises serious questions

Interesting numbers, questions unanswered

The operating expenses breakdown is where the story gets uncomfortable. Some of these numbers need to be looked at directly.

Consulting and Professional Fees: ₦59.2 million (2024: ₦20.3 million). A near-tripling in one year, with no explanation in the notes. Who are the consultants? What did the company buy for ₦59 million that it could not buy for ₦20 million the year before? The financial statements are silent.

Directors’ Sitting Allowances: ₦25 million (2024: ₦18.7 million). There are thirteen directors on this board. They met four times in 2025. That works out to roughly ₦480,000 per director per meeting.

Meanwhile, six of the company’s 50 employees earn below ₦150,000 per month.

Dr Odunlami Kola-Daisi, Chairman, SET Plc

Amortisation: ₦122 million. This is the annual cost of writing down the value of the lottery licences and computer software. It is a non-cash charge (no money leaves the building) but it is significant because it reflects a core structural reality: the company’s intangible assets are depleting faster than the business is generating profits to replace them.

Transport and Travelling: ₦20.2 million (2024: ₦8.6 million). More than doubled in a year where revenue declined.

The operating expenses grew by 35.5% in 2025. Revenue fell by 2.41% in the same period. These two lines moving in opposite directions is the core of SET Plc’s financial problem.

Revenue in the billions. Losses in the hundreds of millions. And cash at year-end? ₦20.5 million.

12 months earlier, SET Plc had ₦52.7 million in cash. The company burned through ₦32 million of its cash reserve in 2025. At the current burn rate, without a change in the business trajectory, that cash cushion will not survive another two reporting cycles.

The cash flow statement is equally revealing. Cash generated from operations was ₦25.1 million. After paying ₦3.6 million in finance costs, net cash from operating activities landed at ₦21.5 million.

The company then spent ₦33.7 million buying property, plant and equipment. Then repaid ₦20 million in bank loans. The maths is unforgiving.

Buried in the current liabilities section of SET Plc’s balance sheet is a figure that has been completely unchanged for at least two consecutive years: a current tax payable of ₦522,158,768.

The same number. To the kobo. In 2025 and in 2024.

Read also: 37-year-old Nigerian tech company, Omatek, only made ₦2.2m in revenue in 2025

Putting it all together

Yet, the directors say that they are satisfied the company has “adequate financial resources to continue in operation for the foreseeable future.” That may be true. But ₦20.5 million in cash, against ₦541.9 million in current liabilities, is an extremely thin buffer.

Similarly, the independent auditors, Kehinde Kassim & Co., issued a clean (unqualified) opinion on the financial statements. Their two key audit matters were revenue recognition and trade receivables.

The clean opinion means the auditors are satisfied that the numbers fairly represent the company’s financial position. A clean opinion, however, does not mean a company is financially healthy. It means the accounts are prepared properly. Its accounts are properly prepared. The situation they describe is still deeply concerning.

In all, Secure Electronic Technology Plc is a listed Nigerian company running a licensed lottery business that generates over ₦4 billion in annual revenue. By many surface measures, it looks operational. It pays its staff. It maintains its licences. Its auditors sign off clean. But...

When does Secure Electronic Technology Plc plan to make a profit?