NLA agents call for increased commission

The Northern Region Lotto Marketing Companies and Retailers Association has appealed to the National Lotteries Authority (NLA) to increase the commission it paid to its agents from the current 20 percent to 30 percent.

Nana Kofi Asabere, Vice Chairman of Northern Region Lotto Marketing Companies and Retailers Association, who made the appeal at the end of year get-together for members of the Association in Tamale, said this would help tackle the banker to banker lotto business, which paid 35 percent instant commission to its lotto writers.

Nana Asabere said about 70 percent of members of the Association had turned to writing banker to banker lotto because of the high commission they received compared to NLA, which paid 20 percent commission on total sales.

He also spoke about the deduction of five percent tax on heavy wins, saying it affected the staking of national lottery, calling on NLA and the government to abolish the tax to encourage people to stake lotto from NLA agents.

Nana Asabere also called on NLA to abolish the cancellation of refund of money to lotto writers, whose machines could not print out coupons.

He said the cancellation of refund of money to lotto writers had affected their operations resulting in between GHc400 to GHc500 debt to some members of the Association for more than four months now.

Mr Caesar Abagali, Northern Regional Manager of Ghana News Agency, who chaired the event, appealed to government to consider employing NLA agents as their operations helped to generate substantial revenue for the state.