Sammi Awuku takes over from Kofi Osei Ameyaw as NLA Director General

The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has appointed National Organizer of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Samuel Kwabena Awuku as the new Director-General of the National Lottery Authority (NLA).

Sammi Awuku as he is popularly called will take over from Kofi Osei Ameyaw who was ordered to proceed on retirement in March 2021.

Sammi Awuku, a former National Youth Organizer of the NPP, is expected to resign from his current position as National Organizer to take over the new role.

He served as Board Chairman of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) and was twice elected Vice Chair of the Young Democrats Union (IYDU), an international association of the youth wings of conservative parties across the world.

Troubles at NLA
Mr. Awuku is joining the NLA months after staff of the authority threatened to withdraw their services over challenges the authority was going through that led to the non-payment of lottery wins for several months.

The workers in March 2021 also said the poor management of the authority also resulted in the inability to pay salaries for the month of February 2021.

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The National Labour Commission subsequently stepped in and directed the workers to abort their threats.

Also, in 2020, an investigative piece produced by Joy News alleged that the cost of some 30,000 Point of Sale (POS) devices procured by the lottery authority was inflated by about $10 million.

The media house suggested that the supply of these devices should have cost less than half of the contract sum of $25 million. The NLA subsequently rubbished the claims.