NLA to reintroduce live draws on national television

The national lottery live draws will soon reshow on Ghanaian television screens as the National Lottery Authority (NLA) pledges to reintroduce the live draws to ensure transparency in operations.

The live draws used to feature on state owned television, GBC, in previous times where people were called to pick the numbers.

Following grievances expressed by LMCs at a press conference Wednesday over the impact of banker-to-banker operations on their daily sales, Director General of the NLA, Kofi Osei-Ameyaw indicated that the authority is putting in appropriate measures to address their concerns accordingly.

The LMCs among other things, complained about the fact that the banker-to-banker operators ‘cheat’ them by still working within the official closing time (6pm and 6:30). According to them, as a result of the delays with the draws, the illegal lotto operators are able to monitor and attend to clients.

Mr. Osei Ameyaw, explaining what accounts for the delay in the draws said “We also rely on technical service providers, and once we close the sales, ordinarily, it should be a close of sales in real time, but we are relying on third parties that have to give us the sales documents to close so that we have the documents before we withdraw; it is that which is creating the problem”.

He however assured LMC’s that alternative resolution measures including the surprise and live draws will be introduced to help remedy the situation. He also indicated that the authority has called for other measures to ensure that the process for the draws are secured to produce timely results.

“We have called for real time API consumption, in other words, whilst the sales are happening, I should be able to see it in real time and so when I close, the next minute, I can draw. We should look at doing surprise draws, so maybe 5:30 we close and play, you’ll suffer a little but the people who wait till last minute for the draws, those ones will be affected.

Mr. Osei-Ameyaw further indicated that the live and surprise elements in the draws will help address the doubts and concerns of lotto operators.

“We are bringing the live draws. We’ll go back to the olden days so that every Ghanaian will see what is happening, so that they’ll have confidence in the system. Now people tell others; if it goes through the machine, they see it and that affects your business so now we want everybody to see it”.