By Grace Zigah
The Finance Minister needs to get his facts right about the benefits Ghanaian taxpayers receive from the lottery business, an industry analyst has said.
Dr. Razak Kojo Opoku has challenged what he described as misinformation after Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson stated that taxpayers are benefiting GHS 10 million from lottery operations through dividends allegedly paid by the National Lottery Authority (NLA).
According to Dr. Opoku, Ghanaian taxpayers, through the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), received over GHS 153 million from KGL Technology Limited alone on April 16, 2026, for the 2025 financial year. In addition, taxpayers, through the National Lottery Authority, benefited from over GHS 173 million from KGL in the same period.
“As Finance Minister, he needs to be interested in understanding how the NLA received GHS 173 million from KGL, while the Ministry of Finance received only GHS 10 million in dividends from the NLA,” Dr. Opoku said.
For the records, he noted that 29 other private lotto operators licensed by the NLA also paid GHS 44.9 million to the NLA in 2025. He added that these operators equally pay taxes to the GRA.
“Therefore, strictly speaking, the Finance Minister has engaged in misinformation on this particular subject matter. It is NEVER TRUE that this is the first time the taxpayers are benefitting from lottery business since 2018,” he stated.
Dr. Opoku argued that the major problem of the NLA is wastage of financial resources.
“It does not make sense for NLA to use over 90% of its income on Good Causes Foundation & other CSR activities and pay only GHS 10 million dividend to the Ministry of Finance,” he said.
He added that the focus should not necessarily be on reviewing agreements but on tackling waste at the NLA.
“It is not necessarily about reviewing of agreements but it is about tackling wastage of financial resources at the NLA as a resetting government.
The more NLA receives the more they use the money on needless internal operations and activities at the detriment of the taxpayers,” he said.
