By Mabel Adorkor Annang.
Unregistered lotto operators have been advised with immediate effect to register with the National Lotteries Authority or face the full rigors of the law.
Speaking to a Nigerian delegation in Accra, the Director-General of the National Lotteries Authority, Sammy Awuku said such illegal acts which are characteristic of both countries need to be addressed to bring sanity into the lottery industry.
The lottery industry has over the years been inundated with several challenges such as the non-payment of wins and complaints by retailers of neglect by the NLA.
However, the current management of the Authority has put up measures to ensure that the challenges in the sector are halted.
To this end, a delegation from Nigeria has called on Ghana’s lottery management team to gain insights into how the Ghana lottery system operates and what lessons they can learn.
The Director General of the Ghana lotteries Authority, Sammi Awuku said it is high time Ghana benefited in royalties from Nigeria when they use draw numbers in their operations.
“Ghana’s draw numbers have become a very contentious issue back in Nigeria, as to who can use it and who cannot use our numbers in paying wins. Perhaps we regret the outcome of these disagreements and we believe that these are matters that can be resolved, so it becomes a win, win situation. Those also using our numbers outside Ghana we need to have that mutual agreement, that will bring something to our people and for the development of our game here as well,” he intimated.
The Chairman of the Nigerian Licensed Lottery Operators, Mr. Chima Onwuka gave reasons Nigeria uses the draw numbers of Ghana in their operations.
“We use the Ghana numbers overtime as Banker to Banker to validate our draws. The NLA does not pay our winnings, it is just the numbers that we use. We do the marketing; we take the risk as operators and we pay our tax to the Nigerian Government.” Mr. Onwuka explained.
In all, the two parties pledged to have a mutually beneficial partnership and also work in unison to get rid of all unlicensed operators in the industry.
