KGL contract will give us financial boost - NLA Management insists

The Management of the National Lottery Authority (NLA) has placed on record that KGL Technology Limited does not have 11 years contract with the Authority as published by some section of the media.

A statement signed by the Head of the Public Relations Unit of the NLA said: "In our estimation, the publication only presents manufactured lies, outright fabrications and it does not represent the true account of the contract between NLA and KGL Technology Limited."

The statement said “it was never true that the gross revenue sharing between NLA and KGL was 25 and 75 per cent respectively, as a matter of fact, nothing of such agreement exists between NLA and KGL Technology Limited.”

It said the media failed to consider the cost of operating the online system, payment of winning tickets as well as commitment to the Government and payment of fees to the Telecommunication Companies such as MTN, Vodafone and AirtelTigo.

The statement urged the media to seek credible information from NLA and avoid misleading information.

It said although such publications were done consistently by some section of the media, the NLA management at this point was declining to believe that they were nurturing a mischievous agenda against NLA and KGL.

The statement said the NLA was also aware of talks between KGL and the Minister of Sports for the sponsorship of Black Stars Afcon 2022 and also other sporting events and said setting the records straight, the strategic partnership between KGL Technology Limited and NLA was a game-changer to the revenue mobilization efforts of NLA, adding that, the contract of KGL could never and would never cripple the NLA financially as was reported.

The statement said the financial challenges that were encountered by NLA were largely due to the illegal live lotto draws of Alpha Lotto Limited on GTV, illegal operations of 5/90 Short Code by Alpha Lotto Limited, illegal high commission of 30-40 per cent paid by Private Lotto Operators as against the 20 per cent standard commission for the lottery industry and Shortage of Thermal Paper Rolls for the accredited Lotto Marketing Companies of NLA.

It said for the purpose of clarity, KGL Technology and all other companies licensed by the NLA do not conduct their own independent parallel Lotto Draws, especially on television except Alpha Lotto Limited which was conducting illegal live Lotto Draws on GTV, and NLA was taking measures to deal with such illegal Lotto Draws.

The statement said the NLA online Lotto Marketing Company, KGL Technology Limited and all licensed companies of NLA except Alpha Lotto Limited depend on the Lotto Draws of the Authority in accordance with Act 722, Act 844 and L. I. 1948 to pay their respective wins.

It said the main purpose and existence of NLA was all about Lotto Draws and NLA can never surrender such functions to Alpha Lotto Limited or any other Private Lotto Operator/Agent or collaborator.

The statement said the NLA and KGL Technology Limited partnership is anchored on the digitalization programme of the Government of Ghana and that there was nothing that can change such a laudable project of the Government aimed at boosting the revenue of the NLA.

It said before the operation of *959# by KGL Technology Limited, the NLA was having an online platform and short code *890# that was managed by a private company known as TekStart Africa Limited allegedly associated with the former Director-General Mr Kofi Osei-Ameyaw.

An amount of 13millon dollars was invested in the *890# Short Code, but sadly the platform was unavailable to yield profit to NLA, not even a penny. At the appropriate time, investigations shall be conducted into the operations of TekStart Africa Limited and other similar companies.

Currently, the NLA has officially shut down the *890# Short Code due to the unprofitable nature of the *890# platform.

The *959# has proven beyond a reasonable doubt to be a robust platform capable of helping the NLA to achieve its core mandate of revenue generation through indirect taxes.

Moving forward, the NLA is putting measures in place to also protect and safeguard the business and investment of our over 10,000 Lotto Marketing Companies, through whose efforts the Authority had been generating revenue for the Government.

“It is important to state that the National Lottery Authority heavily depends on Private Companies to raise revenue for the Government. All the Lotto Marketing Companies who sell lotto products on behalf of NLA are Private Companies.

“The Technical Service Providers such as Lots Services Ghana Limited, Simnet Ghana Limited and TekStart Africa Limited are Private Companies except Simnet which is co-owned by SSNIT.”

The Government through the Ministry of Finance had taken pragmatic steps to fully restructure the National Lottery Authority.