Ghana government asked to establish Lotto Commission to regulate business
Government has been tasked to establish a Lotto Commission to regulate and control physical activities of all lotto operators in order to create jobs and raise revenue for the country.
The Ghana Lotto Operators Association (GLOA), an amalgamation of private Lotto operators in the country, contended that the National Lottery Authority (NLA) currently could not continue to regulate and operate lottery business.
Speaking at a Press Conference in Accra on Tuesday, Mr Seth A. Amoani, Secretary of GLOA, noted that Lotto Commission, if established would break the monopoly of the NLA as a regulator and operator in Ghana.
Mr Amoani noted that the separation of a regulatory function of the NLA from its commercial or operational functions would ensure that the authority regulated and promoted competition with other private lotto operators.
“Competition is good for Ghana and for all commercial operations of the state; otherwise there will be no private banks, insurance, transport operators. The truth is that corruption does not make the public sector effective to innovate, except with private sector competition.”
According to Mr Amoani, GLOA with over two million members were ready to provide solutions to growing challenges of unemployment in the country.
Mr Amoani noted that the NLA currently needed an overhauling through public-private partnership arrangements and innovations to amass more revenue for the state and provide jobs for people engaged in illegal mining in the country.
“The reliance on banker to banker tag as the excuse to maintain monopoly in modern Ghana is an aberration of private sector development agenda being pursued by the New Patriotic Party government. This makes the case of public, private participation even stronger,” M Amoani recounted.
The Secretary of GLOA said members were ready to comply with all regulations and called for the creation of a national database to register all operators and sub agents to facilitate tax collection.
He announced that GLOA had so far received some feedback from the NLA to re-organise and restructure the operations of all members.
Mr Amoani therefore appealed to all members to reposition their companies and transform their operations to comply with the new requirements of NLA.
He proposed the establishment of a legal review committee to explore modalities for the amendment of the National Lotto Act, Act 722 (2006).
He was of the view that deliberate criminalisation of the operations of private lotto had over the years undermined employment creation and revenue maximisation at the Districts.
Dr Ato Conduah, a Consultant to GLOA said it was important to encourage the NLA to face competition instead of creating monopoly in the lotto industry adding that the Authority could not continue to be operator and regulator.
Dr Conduah recalled that people who were engaged in galamsey offered jobs that the private sector was given the nod to operate effectively.
Source: GNA