The Ghana Lotto Operators Association (GLOA) and the Concerned Lotto Agents Association of Ghana (CLAA) have expressed their disapproval on the decision by the National Lottery Authority (NLA) to outsource 5/90 lottery to Keed Limited.
They argue the initiative would lead to job losses to several millions of Ghanaians if implemented.
“We, private lotto operators are not opposed to digitization of lottery operation as it’s a growing trend. But to outsource 5/90 lottery to ONE company Keed Limited (KGL) will result in millions of Ghanaians losing their jobs,” they said in a press release.
The two bodies say private lotto operators and lotto agents are in millions and are most likely to lose their jobs if the NLA goes ahead with its decision.
They are therefore calling on the NLA to critically examine the potential consequences of their intention on the economy and rescind its decision as a matter of urgency, saying; “the current state of the economy will make job losses extreme unbearable in a system with no government welfare (such as unemployment benefits, council flat, food stamp, child care etc).”
The private lotto operators accused the NLA of failing to “regularize lotto operations to reduce unlawful practices and ensure that those of us who have paid for our license can operate at our optimum level and in turn contribute our quota to NLA and Ghana’s economy.”
“We the private lotto operators suggested to NLA to tax the writers by charging one hundred and twenty cedis (GH₵120.00) per lotto kiosk and all writers who pay will have a sticker embossed on their kiosk. There are over 2million writers in the private lotto sector. Can you imagine the revenue that NLA will generate through our writers? In the last five years, several petitions and letters have been written to NLA to enforce this suggestion but to no avail,” the release also contained.
Licencing
According to them, they began negotiations with the NLA under the leadership of Kofi Osei Ameyaw in 2020 to register and issue them with licences to operate lottery.
“Every operator paid one million cedis (Gh.c 1,000,000) and per NLA’s request had to procure POS terminal machines, software, servers, draw machines etc. These proposed changes by NLA were capital intensive and cost us greatly. We were given a ten-year agreement for renewal of licence to help us recoup our investment but when the current NLA, MD Mr. Samuel Awuku assumed office he has pretended that there is no agreement of this sort,” they added.
They are calling on the NLA to reinstate the 10-year tenure licence renewal in the new agreement, which they believe would help them to recoup their capital investment, arguing further that “lottery is a game of chance and you can make a loss in the first year through massive wins. This prompts you to borrow to keep business afloat, how are you going to payback your debtors if you cannot operate after the first year?”
The private lotto operators also want the NLA to furnish them with the new licence agreement for their perusal, an invitation to sign the agreement and issue them with their licences with a commencement date starting from the day of signing of the agreement.
“We also insist that every year we are allowed to renew the licences for our operations.
The fee for the renewal must be made clear and the incremental amount should not be more than 10 percent of the initial fee,” they again stated.
They asked the NLA to be open to implement suggestions from private lotto operators on how to generate more revenue for the government and desist from granting monopoly to KEED (KGL) and its subsidiaries and be open to a mechanism that includes private lotto operators in the digitization of lotto process.
By Larry Kojo Moses|ConnectFM|Onuaonline.com
