The Director of Finance at the National Lottery Authority (NLA), Mr Charles Mensah, has described as "totally false and misleading" the claims by the Ghana Lotto Operators Associaiton (GLOA) that as many as one million jobs will be lost if private lotto operation is outlawed.

He told the Daily Graphic that "the totality of private lotto operators that existed before the promulgation of the NLA Act did not and could not have employed more than 3,000 people".

He was reacting to a Daily Graphic report on August 22, 2008 that quoted the GLOA as saying that one million jobs would be lost, if the Accra Fast Track High Court's ruling that outlawed the activities of private lotto operators was not reversed.

Mr Mensah said the impression being created that it was a court of law that was outlawing private lotto was false, adding that, "What the courts have done is to reinforce what is contained in the NLA Act of 2006."

"It must be pointed out that with the promulgation of the National Lottery Act, the NLA is the only organisation permitted by law to operate lotto in Ghana, but it can, among other things, license interested companies to sell its lotto on its behalf," he stressed.

He stated that while it was possible that some existing banker-to-banker and other private operators might be unwilling to register with the NLA, and therefore, be unable to maintain their existing employees, many
others, including new companies, were being incorporated and were employing many people to sell lotto on their behalf across the country.

Mr Mensah said a number of companies, including some members of GLOA, had availed themselves of that opportunity and pointed out that so far, seven provisional licences had been issued and many others had also been considered by the Board of Directors of the NLA for issuance.

He named the seven companies that had been issued with provisional licences as the National Lotto Receivers Limited, Lotteria Company Limited, Super 06 Company, Obiri Asare and Sons, the National Association of Lotto Agents and Writers, West End Discount Limited and Kwahu Farmers Lotto Company Limited.

On the National Lottery Act (Act 722), Mr Mensah said it allowed lotto companies and any other business entity interested in the lotto business to be registered to work with the authority without any hindrance.

He said the objective of the law was to improve and expand lotto operations in Ghana, increase government revenue, expand job opportunities in the lotto business and also improve the business operations of the various licensed marketing companies.

The Director of Finance at the NLA said the Ghana Lotto Operators Association (GLOA), like all other lotto operators in the country, were allowed under the law to register and work with the NLA.

Mr Mensah explained that the work of the NLA was improving, adding that within the last three-and-a-half years, the authority had directly contributed GH¢18,400,000 to the Consolidated Fund and paid taxes to the tune of GH¢7 million in addition to the payment of commissions to lotto agents and marketing companies to the tune of GH¢50 million as their commission of 25 per cent on the sales they made.

Additional information made available to the Daily Graphic by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning stated that lotto agents who had been operating in partnership with the NLA had shot up from 5,020 to 12, 610 within the past few years.

"In the new state-private partnership, the Department of National Lotteries has been dissolved. Products that were operated by the DNL will be operated by the NLA. The personnel of the defunct DNL have the option to be licensed as a Lotto Marketing Company," it stated.

Similarly, it stated that private lotto operators licensed under the old regime had the option to be licensed as Lotto Marketing Companies upon applying to the Authority.