The Association of Lotto Marketing Companies (ALMC) has petitioned President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia to assist its members with a Stimulus Package to enable them acquire the laudable solar-powered e-kiosk Project.
Their petition, which was copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra was also copied to the Ministry of Finance, the Board Chairman and the Director-General of the National Lottery Authority (NLA).
The petition was in line with the Government's Policy of providing Stimulus Packages to struggling Companies that have the potential to achieve the desired growth to support the economy, but are facing financial challenges.
The solar-powered e-kiosk Project is introduced by the NLA in partnership with the Private Sector whilst the ALMC constitutes the direct sales force and main backbone of the NLA.
The e-kiosk project is in line with Government's Renewable Energy Policy.
A Statement signed by the Public Relations Department of the NLA and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra at the weekend said the NLA acknowledged receipt of the association's petition signed by its General Secretary, Mr. Kofi Frimpong,
It said the NLA in partnership with the Private Sector were seeking to modernise the operations and management of the Lottery Industry by replacing the wooden lotto kiosks and the metal containers with the modernised Solar-powered e-kiosks.
The statement said the wooden lotto Kiosks and metal containers were not business friendly, and unable to reduce lottery stigmatisation, thereby reducing sales and revenue generation.
It said the e-kiosk Project is in consonance with Government's Policy of digitising the Ghanaian economy and is also designed to create over 30,000 new jobs for the youth of this country".
It said the Solar-powered e-kiosks are equipped with facilities such as Solar Panels, V-Sat Internet-Connectivity, Money Safes, Fan and Android Point of Sale Terminals.
"In addition to the Sales of lotto, the E-kiosks will be used to provide Value Added Services such as Mobile Money Interoperability transactions, Banking, Remittances and collection of taxes for the Ghana Revenue Authority and payments of Utility Tariffs".
The NLA statement said, the ALMC in their petition raised the issues over the constant harassment and demolitions of their wooden lotto Kiosks and metal containers by the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies which undermined the efforts of operators.
This trend, the association petition revealed and accepted by the NLA had been disturbing the NLA's revenue generation efforts which in the end affected Government's Revenue.
It said to this end, the ALMC decided to embrace the Solar-powered E-kiosks, a very laudable initiative by the NLA aimed at providing solutions to the challenges of the Lottery Industry.
"We find the cost of the Solar-powered e-kiosks to be beyond our means for which we think something must be done by Government to enable all our members to get on board to ensure that the e-kiosk Project becomes fully successful," the petition said.
"We appeal for a subsidy to cater for the Cost of the E-kiosks to avoid the entire burden of the cost involved in the acquisition of the E-kiosks by our members.
"We are fully aware of Government's financial assistance to the struggling Banks as well as the various Industries that are struggling to survive, the petition said".
The NLA statement emphasised that due to the relentless efforts of the Lotto Marketing Companies, it had been a self-financing Government Institution since its establishment, notwithstanding the statutory provision which gave it the mandate to fall on the Consolidated Fund whenever it faced any financial challenges in its operations.