Generating Revenue Is My Prime Concern At NLA- Sammy Awuku
Mr. Sammy Awuku, Director General of the National Lottery Authority (NLA), says his primary focus and top goal at the Authority is to increase revenue for the state through the implementation of his mission.
Mr. Awuku said his political ties with the ruling party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), are well known and he is unwilling to apologize for them. He was speaking at a sensitization seminar organized by the NLA for senior journalists in the country on the 20th of November 2021 at the Best Western Plus Hotel in Nungua in Accra.
Mr. Awuku, on the other hand, stated that he is not at the NLA to pursue politics during working hours, but rather to increase money for the state and make the NLA profitable.
“I keep telling my colleagues that we don’t have to be friends to work together, but we have to get to that destination and they all agree.”
“I also keep telling management that honestly speaking, I may not trust everyone in the room, but I believe everyone has the potential to help all of us deliver and at the staff durbar, I have said and I maintain that I knew that they had their concepts when I was posted to them at the NLA.”
“So I took the bull by the horn that I am not there to pretend to them that I am neutral, I am not,” Sammy Awuku said.
“However, if I perform at the NLA, there are some people who will not share the same political orientation with me but based on my relationship and how I deliver, they can even be tempted to vote for my party,” he added.
Mr. Awuku acknowledged that the existing contract between NLA and KGL largely favors KGL and is currently under review in response to a question posed by Elvis Darko, the Editor of The Finder Newspaper, during the question and answer session at the seminar on why the NLA entered into the existing contract with KGL that saw them pay GHc 20 million in 2020 and GHc 25 million cedis in 2021.
In addition, he stated that the NLA aims to secure a minimum of GHc 45 million cedis by 2022.
“Whereas they are looking at making gains as a commercial entity, they also owe it as a responsibility towards the NLA to give her what is due.
“We are making a case for an additional 3 million cedis on top of the GHc 45 million, plus GHc 2 million cedis commitment towards ‘good causes’ (the Corporate Social Responsibility wing of the NLA).”
“Anything below that, I have expressed it to management and the board that they will have to sign it on their own,” the NLA boss Sammy Awuku said.
However, when it comes to how draw balls are inserted into the draw machine, Mr. Awuku points out that Ghana is the only country that takes several minutes to load each drawn ball one by one. According to him, all draw balls are loaded at the same time in other jurisdictions, and this does not compromise the game of chance in any way.
In the future, he said, Ghana will follow the Ivory Coast’s and other jurisdictions’ lead and load draw balls all at once.
Mr. Awuku, Ghana’s draw machine, was purchased in 1973, making it the world’s oldest draw machine in operation. He went on to say that the draw machine had outlived its usefulness and that the NLA had begun the process of purchasing a replacement.
“We have commenced the process, we will be securing about five new draw machines so that these would be state of the art and modern and it will eliminate the human contact,” Awuku said.
The NLA president also intimated that the Authority has changed its television draw outlook, particularly for the 5/90 national weekly draw. The Authority has signed a new agreement with a new station to broadcast the live draws of the NLA immediately, he noted. GTV has traditionally been the station that telecasts the draw, but he noted that the Authority has signed a new agreement with a new station to broadcast the live draws of the NLA immediately.
The National Lottery Authority is a public service institution designed to provide a corporate platform that encourages creativity, innovation, and best management practice.
Source: Opemsup.com/ Emmanuel Owusu Anti
