{"id":16434,"date":"2026-01-19T13:36:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T16:36:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/?p=16434"},"modified":"2026-04-19T09:55:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T12:55:13","slug":"nla-ex-official-backs-president-mahamas-review-of-nla-kgl-lottery-agreement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/nla-ex-official-backs-president-mahamas-review-of-nla-kgl-lottery-agreement","title":{"rendered":"NLA ex official backs President Mahama\u2019s review of NLA-KGL lottery agreement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>He added that the government, through the NLA and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), earned more than GH\u00a2300m (\u20ac17.1\u202fm) from KGL in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Ghana.- Former Head of Public Relations at the National Lottery Authority (NLA), <strong>Dr Razak Kojo Opoku<\/strong>, has accepted <strong>President John Dramani Mahama<\/strong>\u2019s directive for a review of the licensing agreement between <strong>the NLA and KGL Technology Limited<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0In a statement issued in Accra on <strong>January 12, 2026<\/strong>, Dr Opoku said: \u201cThe wisdom of Mahama\u2019s government in safeguarding the NLA-KGL contract reflects a commitment to supporting private-sector growth and indigenous entrepreneurship, as enshrined in Article 36 of the 1992 Constitution.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He explained that despite a sustained negative campaign by a section of the media, which urged the government to cancel the NLA-KGL contract, the Mahama administration chose to uphold the agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr Opoku emphasised that the deal would continue indefinitely, with scheduled reviews and renegotiations designed to protect both the interests of the state and KGL. He stated: \u201cThe NLA-KGL deal shall stay forever, with reviews and renegotiations in the interests of the state and KGL.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He added that the government, through the NLA and the <strong>Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA)<\/strong>, earned more than <strong>GH\u00a2300m <\/strong>(\u20ac17.1\u202fm) from KGL in 2025. Of this, the NLA received <strong>GH\u00a2176m <\/strong>(\u20ac10m). These figures, he said, emphasised the financial benefits of the licensing agreement for the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr Opoku pointed out that the current NLA Board had already requested the Attorney-General\u2019s assessment and review of the licensing agreement before media campaigns and petitions reached the Office of the President. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He explained: \u201cReview and renegotiation are mandatory under the contract, which stipulates reviews every three years, with negotiations commencing six months into the following year. NLA and KGL have mutually agreed to advance this process to early 2026, ensuring ample time for review ahead of 2027.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He stressed that renegotiations are legal processes between the contracting parties, not matters for media debate. KGL fully supports the review being undertaken by the Attorney-General and Ministry of Justice, which will help put to rest baseless criticisms of the NLA-KGL deal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He also criticised the <strong>Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)<\/strong> for attempting to claim credit for the review process after its earlier campaign to terminate the contract failed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The agreement, signed in <strong>2024<\/strong>, grants KGL rights to operate aspects of the <strong>NLA\u2019s 5\/90 lottery <\/strong>through online and mobile channels. In 2025, <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Fourth Estate<\/strong>, a journalism group, raised concerns about the contracts, reporting that since the deals began in 2019, the NLA\u2019s payments to the government fund had fallen sharply, while KGL had earned substantial profits from the same operations. The findings prompted calls for a review to ensure the agreements deliver fair value and serve the public interest.<\/p>\n\n\n<div id=\"see-also-container\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"see-also-label\">See also:<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"related-article\">\n\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"related-article__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2026\/01\/GHANA-J-300x200.jpeg\" alt=\"\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"related-article__text\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"see-also-label-strong\">See also:<\/span> <a href='https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/president-mahama-orders-full-review-of-nla-kgl-technology-agreements'>President Mahama orders full review of NLA-KGL Technology agreements<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>He added that the government, through the NLA and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), earned more than GH\u00a2300m (\u20ac17.1\u202fm) from KGL in 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2395,"featured_media":11650,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Ghana's President has directed a review of the licensing agreement between the National Lottery Authority (NLA) and KGL Technology Limited, which operates the 5\/90 lottery via online and mobile channels. A former NLA official defends the deal, citing significant government revenue and emphasizing that reviews are standard contractual obligations, despite media scrutiny regarding the contract's fairness and public interest value. The Attorney-General and Ministry of Justice are undertaking the assessment.","focusai_entities":"National Lottery Authority, KGL Technology Limited, Ghana Revenue Authority, Dr Razak Kojo Opoku, President John Dramani Mahama, Attorney-General, Ministry of Justice, Media Foundation for West Africa, The Fourth Estate","focusai_location":"Ghana, Accra","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.8), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"NLA-KGL Review Scope?","query":"What specific financial and operational clauses within the NLA-KGL licensing agreement are under review by the Attorney-General, and what are the potential implications for KGL's operational scope and revenue share?"},{"label":"Revenue Impact Analysis?","query":"How does the reported GH\u00a2300m government revenue from KGL in 2025 compare to pre-2019 NLA contributions to the state, and what is the projected long-term fiscal impact of the renegotiated terms?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[60023,60012],"tags":[74],"class_list":["post-16434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal-news","category-west-africa","tag-lottery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2395"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16434"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16472,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16434\/revisions\/16472"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}