Business News of Monday, 17 April 2017

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

NLA ready to embrace illegal lotto operators - NLA Director General

Director General of the NLA, Kofi Osei- Ameyaw Director General of the NLA, Kofi Osei- Ameyaw

The Director General of National Lottery Authority, (NLA) Kofi Osei-Ameyaw says the Authority is ready to embrace all lottery operators who are not operating within the ambit of the law but are willing to join NLA.

He was speaking with executives of the Association of Lotto Marketing Companies (ALMC) who had called on him to deliberate on issues of mutual concern.

This comes on the back of a petition by the Concerned Lotto Agents Association of Ghana (CLAG) to the government “to amend the National Lotto Act to include private sector participation in the country’s lottery industry’’.

The Director General of NLA Kofi Osei-Ameyaw says NLA is ready to work together with all persons who are ready to come under the umbrella of the Authority by issuing them with licenses, and providing them with Point of Sale Terminals (POSTs) to operate.

This he said will generate more revenue for the State for national development; as other lottery operators pay no taxes to the government thus depriving the state of the much needed revenue.

He further stated that NLA is not out to ruin anyone’s business but is open to work with all private lotto operators who are willing to join NLA. That notwithstanding, he also served notice that all operators who continue to operate illegally will face the law as stipulated in ACT 722.

Mr. Osei-Ameyaw also hinted that he will also enforce the Executive Instrument E.1 6 signed by the former Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Ms. Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong in 2013 which empowers NLA to prosecute offenders who will be tried in Lotto Courts established across the country.