The Director-General of the National Lottery Authority (NLA), Mohammed Abdul-Salam, has disclosed that the Presidency has affirmed the legality of the contractual relationship between the NLA and KGL Technology Limited, even as negotiations continue to secure a more financially favourable arrangement for the state. The update, delivered on April 21, 2026, on Channel One TV’s Face to Face programme, signals the end of a lengthy review process while opening a new phase of renegotiation.
Abdul-Salam explained that the process surrounding the agreement had gone through several levels of engagement involving key state institutions, including the Ministry of Finance, the Attorney-General’s Department, and the Presidency. He said the matter was escalated for legal guidance after the NLA board initially wrote to the Attorney-General to clarify its position on the contract. According to him, the Presidency subsequently directed the formation of a committee to review the agreement comprehensively.
He added that the NLA board had written to the Attorney-General to seek clarification on the contractual agreement with KGL, and that the Presidency later directed the formation of a committee to review the contract and make recommendations. “The presidency has equally issued a directive indicating that it was within the NLA’s mandate to enter such agreements with KGL and others for the purposes of providing regulation for the industry,” he said.
However, the endorsement of the contract’s legality comes with a clear caveat. “In terms of the revenue share, which we have always stated, the NLA needed to gain much more from that contractual agreement than it is presently having. The state stands to benefit. In that pushing you’ve had the committee formed, the negotiations are currently ongoing to bring about an improvement in the share of the state in terms of what monies come to us,” Abdul-Salam noted.
The NLA-KGL arrangement has been the subject of intense public scrutiny following investigative reporting by The Fourth Estate, which revealed the extent to which the state entity had been receiving a small fraction of revenues generated through the partnership. Investigations uncovered arrangements that allowed the NLA to receive only GH¢157.6 million out of the GH¢3 billion revenue KGL earned in 2024, representing a paltry 5.2% of the revenue KGL generated from the NLA’s prime business.
The arrangement involves three separate licensing contracts signed in 2024, including a 15-year licensing deal for KGL to exclusively operate the NLA’s most prized 5/90 lottery online and via USSD mobile short code in Ghana, and two 10-year licences granted to KGL to exclusively operate the 5/90 lottery in Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire respectively. The Fourth Estate’s analysis revealed major legal, financial and procedural issues with the deals, including that aspects of the KGL agreement effectively authorised KGL as a lottery operator rather than a Lotto Marketing Company, which is the only role permitted under the law for private entities.
Official figures provided by the Ministry of Finance also showed a troubling and systematic pattern of decline in NLA’s contribution to the Consolidated Fund since the NLA-KGL deal was first signed in 2019. In 2018, before the start of the deal, NLA’s contribution to the Consolidated Fund was GH¢37.1 million. In 2019, the year the deal commenced, NLA’s contribution decreased to GH¢17.7 million, and in 2020 it fell further to GH¢16.4 million.
President John Dramani Mahama directed an immediate renegotiation of the contractual relationship between the NLA and KGL Technology Limited following the conclusion of the work of the review committee he set up in December. The committee’s findings indicated that while the terms of the current agreement with KGL are not illegal, “the revenue-sharing structure is not financially advantageous to the Republic.”
KGL Technology Limited has welcomed the renegotiation process and has publicly affirmed its commitment to reaching improved terms. KGL said through the collaboration, the NLA and the Ghana Revenue Authority had earned over GH¢300 million in the previous year alone. “We sincerely commend the efforts of the Mahama government for protecting as well as creating an enabling environment for private sector and indigenous entrepreneurs to grow as enshrined in Article 36 of the 1992 Constitution,” a statement from the company said.
The company also noted that the licensing agreements of KGL had mandated periodic reviews after every three years, for which negotiations were required to start six months into the following year. However, both NLA and KGL agreed to bring forward the review exercise to early 2026, to create enough space for review and negotiations ahead of implementation in 2027.
One of the central concerns raised during the review period was the opacity of KGL’s operations, with experts noting that with the current arrangement, KGL had literally become the NLA and turned the NLA into its own marketing company. The NLA did not know how much revenue KGL generated from lotto sales every day, week or month. KGL was paying lotto winners directly from its accounts, with the balance kept in KGL accounts, and had no obligation to transfer funds into the Consolidated Fund of the Republic of Ghana.
The outcome of the current renegotiation will determine the terms under which the partnership continues, with the government’s stated objective being a structure that delivers significantly more revenue to the state while keeping the operational relationship intact.