On October 2, 2026, when finance minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson received GHC 10 million from the National Lotteries as a dividend, he indicated that the payment was the first since 2018 from the state lottery operator.

He also confirmed The Fourth Estate’s position that the deal between NLA and KGL was, indeed, not the best for the state.

Following the minister’s statement, the public relations consultant for KGL, Razak Opoku, publicly accused the minister of spreading misinformation.

The Fourth Estate had an exclusive interview with the Director General (D-G) of the NLA, Mohammed Abdul-Salam, to further clarify issues.

The NLA D-G confirmed the statement by the finance minister that indeed the payment was the first time the NLA was paying a dividend to the government since 2018. He also confirmed that the deal with KGL is indeed skewed against the state.

Mr Abdul-Salam also revealed that the current deal with KGL does not align with global best practice, citing South Africa and other countries where private lotto operators such as KGL will often bid to run state lotteries with revenue sharing arrangements that are highly beneficial to the state.

He said the NLA would ensure that the systemic challenges that prevented the authority from raising revenue for the state are dealt with to ensure that the lottery becomes significantly beneficial to the state.

During the presentation of the dividend by the NLA, the finance minister made an emphatic promise of correcting the current arrangement with KGL that deprives the state of significant revenue.

He announced that he is working with the Attorney General and Minister for Justice to ensure that a new agreement is finalised “this month, October.”

“I believe the National Lotteries deserve better than what you’re getting. The revenue has been ceded unreasonably to the other entity [KGL] as against the government,” the finance minister said. “We believe that needs to be corrected, and we’ll correct it. The taxpayer deserves more than GHC 10 million.”

The total revenue received by NLA from KGL for 2025 was GHC 173 million. While propagandists of KGL celebrated this amount as significant, The Fourth Estate’s analysis had always indicated that the NLA could have additional hundreds of millions from the deal if the right terms and conditions were put in place.

Even though the Minister for Finance was emphatic that matters relating to the deal will be concluded this month, it remains unclear whether a new contract will be in place in the month.

Background

Last year, The Fourth Estate scrutinised the NLA’s deal with KGL Technologies, which allows the private company to operate the authority’s 5/90 lottery online and via USSD. The investigation flagged the agreement as a terrible deal. It also revealed that while KGL disclosed that it generated more than GH¢3 billion as revenue in 2024, it only paid GHC 157.6 million in revenue share to the state for its licences in Ghana, Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire.

Following our revelations, President Mahama directed the setting up of an interministerial committee made up of the Ministry of Finance, the Attorney-General, and the Ministry of Justice to review the NLA-KGL deal.

At the end of the investigations, the interministerial committee affirmed that the deal was indeed not financially advantageous to the country.

Based on the committee’s findings, President Mahama, in April 2026, reordered a renegotiation of the deal and other lottery sector reforms to address other challenges in the sector.

Although the President ordered a speedy renegotiation, the deal has not been concluded more than six months after the directive.