A former Public Relations Manager of the National Lottery Authority (NLA), Dr. Razak Kojo Opoku, has challenged Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson’s claims about the benefits Ghanaian taxpayers have received from the lottery business, insisting that the sector has generated hundreds of millions of cedis for the state.
Dr Opoku said Ghanaian taxpayers, through the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), received more than GH¢153 million from KGL Group on April 16, 2026, in taxes relating to the 2025 financial year.
He said the National Lottery Authority (NLA) also received more than GH¢173 million from KGL, bringing the company’s payments to the two state institutions to over GH¢326 million.
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Dr Opoku questioned why the NLA received GH¢173 million from KGL while the Ministry of Finance received only GH¢10 million in dividends from the authority.
He also noted that 29 other private lotto operators licensed by the NLA paid a combined GH¢44.9 million to the authority in 2025.
According to him, the operators also pay taxes to the GRA, meaning the state derives additional revenue from the private lottery sector.
Dr Opoku therefore rejected any suggestion that taxpayers only recently began benefiting from the lottery business.
“Strictly speaking, the Finance Minister has engaged in misinformation on this particular subject matter,” he said, insisting that it was “NEVER TRUE” that taxpayers had not benefited from lottery revenues since 2018.
He, however, identified what he described as excessive expenditure and financial wastage at the NLA as the major issue requiring attention.
Dr Opoku criticised the authority for allegedly using more than 90% of its income on the Good Causes Foundation and other corporate social responsibility activities while paying only GH¢10 million in dividends to the Ministry of Finance.
He argued that the government’s focus should therefore go beyond reviewing agreements governing the lottery business to addressing how the NLA manages and spends its revenues.
“It is not necessarily about reviewing agreements, but it is about tackling wastage of financial resources at the NLA,” he said.
Dr Opoku further alleged that increased revenues received by the NLA had not translated into corresponding benefits for taxpayers because of what he described as unnecessary internal operations and activities.
“The more NLA receives the more they use the money on needless internal operations and activities to the detriment of the taxpayers,” he stated.