The National Lottery Authority (NLA) on Thursday, September 29, 2022, will launch the programme outline for its 60th anniversary.
The celebration which will span for three months will be commemorated with a number of interesting activities that will whip up public interest in the NLA’s operations.
Starting from September, the anniversary will reach its climax on December 29, 2022, in Accra, where all director generals of the lottery within the African continent will converge to support and participate in the anniversary celebration.
A statement from NLA indicated that “media people, celebrities, government officials, stakeholders, former director generals, traditional chiefs, among others, have all been invited to grace the occasion.
Lottery and National Development
Lottery over the years has immensely contributed to national growth and development. Established in 1962 as the Department of National Lotteries, invited a young man Mr Brennan from Malta to help set up the DNL, which now operates as the National Lottery Authority(NLA), after Act 722 was enacted in 2006.
NLA remains the leader in the lottery business in the sense that it has the legal mandate to regulate the industry. In addition to this autonomous role, the main objective of NLA is to raise revenue to run its affairs, and to pay whatever is left to the government to support developmental needs or projects in the country.
Against this background, NLA undoubtedly is a national asset, but this feat did not come with ease.The NLA brand was built with solid integrity as its core value while other values such as respect, excellence, accountability, leadership, and teamwork equally complemented the success story.
The NLA has its spread across the sixteen regions in Ghana, and continues to expand its tentacles to every nook and cranny. The expansion project is duly on course under the current leadership of Mr Samuel Awuku, the Director General of the authority.
Success of the NLA
Some successes and gains have been made by the NLA particularly under the current administration headed by Mr Awuku. The successes chalked include unity among staff, payment of huge backlog of unpaid wins, discipline and punctuality at work, introduction of new games, fight against illegal lotto operators,among others.
As part of its social responsibility, the Good Causes Foundation has been established by the Authority with the mandate to carry or reach out to the needy and the destitute in society. It basically operates in four areas namely; education, health,sports, and culture. In the past, what existed was commonly referred to as Special Projects.
The NLA boss believes that the authority, through the foundation, wants to give back to society by offering assistance to the vulnerable, people with disability, and the poor in the country.
Successes chalked under Sammy Awuku
Under Mr Awuku, NLA has been readmitted into African Lottery Association and World Lottery Association, where the authority is expected to restore to its former status as a respected body in the global lottery business.
Challenges
As with all public organisations, the NLA as a state parastatal faces some challenges, but which are surmountable, the Director- General admits.
The foremost challenge is the operation of illegal lotto operators.The operation of these people is giving the NLA boss a sleepless night as their continued activities affect the revenue generation of the authority. They do not pay licence to operate, and take some part of the market of the lotto business.
Another problem is the lotto fraudsters, who use the name of NLA to swindle people and lovers of the game.The authority loses revenue and at the same time creates a bad image for the brand. Linked to this is social media scammers who use Facebook and WhatsApp to trap unsuspecting individuals and promise them winning numbers, which they claim emanate from the strong room of NLA. According to the NLA, no such room exists though.
Source: The Independent Ghana