The National Lottery Authority (NLA) will in the coming months rake in a whooping GH₡92M as revenue. The amount represent proceeds from negotiations it had with its partners, as well as royalties from Nigeria and Cote d’Iviore, countries who have drawn Ghana’s game online over the years.
The Chief Executive Officer of the NLA, Mr Samuel Awuku, made this known to journalists at a press conference organised by the Ministry of Information in Accra yesterday.
Mr Awuku attributed these huge gains to his pragmatic and proactive leadership after taking over the responsibilities of manning the activities of the NLA in just 18 months.
Addressing the media, the CEO said that GH₡55m of that money was from a renegotiated deal with KGL Technology Limited.
According to Mr Awuku, KGL, an organisation that operates the NLA’s 5/90 online game, was paying the NLA GH₡25m but his leadership ensured that the deal was adjusted upward to enable the NLA benefit more.
With regards to raking in royalties from countries who have been drawing Ghana’s game online, Mr Awuku indicated that Nigeria for instance has been drawing Ghana’s game online for the past 25 years without paying any royalties to the country.
He said that together with some board members and directors of the NLA, they paid a working visit to Nigeria where they negotiated with the later and made them see the need to pay some form of compensation to the country.
Mr Awuku indicated that the Nigerian Lottery Authority was able to see reason with the Ghanaian authorities and agreed to pay an amount of GH₡18M.
Mr Awuku continued that same negotiations were held with their counterparts in Cote d’Ivoire and were able to agree on GH₡13m.
“…My initial trips to Ivory Coast and Nigeria would now pay off, as both countries will soon pay us royalties…for drawing our games online through the KGL Group”.
Mr Awuku said the Authority is having talks and negotiations with Burkina Faso and Niger to also draw the Authorities’ game online so that they can get some revenue from these countries as well.
Aside using his pragmatic leadership to rake in huge revenues for the NLA, Mr Awuku also noted that his outfit is making efforts to get the Authority some global recognition.
He said the biggest of this global recognition is that the NLA is now a member of the Africa Lottery Authority after it was kicked out of the association for a couple of years for non-payment of dues and not conforming to some regulations.
Mr Awuku said the Authority is working on getting certification from the World Lottery Authority in order to make the NLA more attractive to other countries.
He noted that the benefits of getting the world recognition is not only about making money but that there will be high level trust in the activities of the NLA among others.
Meanwhile, the CEO observed that activities of illegal lottery operators were undermining the works and gains that the Authority has done. He said most of the people who engage in these activities use the 35% payment of commission to bait people to transact business with them.
Mr Awuku noted that the commission that the NLA pays is the highest around the globe and hence encouraged people to transact business with the NLA instead of illegal lottery operators.
He, however, indicated that going forward, the Authority would employ the services of state security operatives to deal with illegal lotto operators.
