Dr. Razak Opoku
The Finance Minister, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, has been asked to get his facts right about the benefits Ghanaian taxpayers receive from the lottery industry.
While reacting to a recent statement which sought to downplay the benefits accruing to taxpayers from the lottery business by the Finance Minister, Dr. Razak Opoku, a financial economist, lecturer and a former Head of Publications of the National Lottery Authority (NLA) stated that the facts on the grounds are in sharp contrast to the Finance Minister’s GH¢10m claim which, according to him, is a case of misinformation being fed him.
KGL Pay GH¢326m To GRA, NLA
He said Ghanaian taxpayers, through the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), received over GH¢153 million from KGL on April 16, 2026, for the 2025 financial year alone.
Ghanaian taxpayers, through the NLA, he added, benefited from over GH¢173 million from KGL.
“As Finance Minister, he needs to be interested in understanding how the NLA received GH¢173 million from KGL, while the Ministry of Finance received only GH¢10 million in dividends from the NLA,” Dr. Opoku reiterated.
For the records, according to him, “other 29 private lotto operators licensed by National Lottery Authority also paid GH¢ 44.9 million to the NLA in 2025.
“I sincerely believe that these 29 licensed private lotto operators equally pay taxes to the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA),” he said.
Dr. Opoku said it is never true that this is the first time taxpayers are benefitting from lottery business since 2018.
The major problem of NLA, according to him, 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 pays only GH¢10 million dividend to the Ministry of Finance.
Continuing, he stated that 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 added.
A Daily Guide Report