The Fourth Estate CMS

Author: Seth J. Bokpe

Forest Invasion: Government finally revokes contentious LI 2462

After sustained pressure from environmentalists and journalists, the John Mahama government has finally revoked the contentious Legal Instrument (L.I.) 2462 that opened up Ghana’s ecologically sensitive areas, including forest reserves for mining.

This follows the maturing of the Environmental Protection (Mining in Forest Reserves) Revocation Instrument, 2025. The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, laid the instrument in Parliament on October 31, 2025.

In accordance with Article 11(7) of the constitution, the regulation was revoked on December 10, 2025 after 21 Parliamentary sitting days.

Reacting to the revocation of the Legal Instrument, the Deputy National Director of A Rocha Ghana, Daryl Bosu, said:

“This is a crucial victory for Ghana’s forests. Yet even now, as we celebrate, forests continue to be destroyed by artisanal mining, illegal farming, and logging activities with no effective action in sight,” he said. “To secure this win, we must urgently halt illegal activities, grow back our forests, and in the long term, develop and implement a progressive national forest protection program, while upgrading the Forestry Commission to effectively deal with these new age threats.”

When the minister laid the Revocation Instrument in Parliament, he said the regulation had been amended due to intense public outcry. The amendment resulted in the creation of L.I. 2501, which came into force on June 2, 2025, he said.

But civil society advocates and concerned citizens opposed the amendment. They argued that the new regulation still left the country’s forest reserves vulnerable.

Mr Armah-Kofi Buah said the government gave in to the demands after consulting with experts and the groundswell against the regulation.

“We are showing Ghanaians that we are committed to protecting the environment, our forest, and our water bodies,” he said.

With The Fourth Estate revealing the faces behind the forest invasion, the National Democratic Congress, then in opposition, promised to revoke the law.

However, the Mahama government made a U-turn on the issue and rather amended part of the regulation, taking away the power of the president to waive the protection of protected forest reserves, including globally significant biodiversity areas.

The decision incensed environmental activists who accused the government of not living up to its word. This compelled the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to re-lay the law before parliament for revocation.

Background

In early 2023, a coalition of civil society organizations (CSOs), including A Rocha Ghana and Nature & Development Foundation (NDF), raised the alarm about how the L.I.

However, their concerns fell on deaf ears.

Their demands remained unheeded to until The Fourth Estate revealed in September 2024, how officials of the then ruling party, the New Patriotic Party, and government appointees of that regime, were granted concessions to mine and prospect in forest reserves.

The expose uncovered the identities of NPP officials and government appointees who were scrambling for mining licences in Ghana’s forest reserves. The owners of some of the companies that have obtained these licences included the mayor of Ghana’s second biggest city, Kumasi, Sam Pyne, and a Parliamentary Candidate for the NPP in Juaben, Francis Owusu-Akyaw.

The Ashanti Regional Chairman of the NPP, Bernard Antwi Boasiako, the District Chief Executive of Wassa East, Emmanuel Boakye, and the NPP’s Women’s Organizer in the Western Region, Angela Bint Ntaama, including a presidential staffer, Harriet Kyeremanteng, all had companies whose licences were waiting ministerial approval to mine in forest reserves.

The Fourth Estate’s investigations also revealed that since 2023 at least 10 companies have been granted mining leases to mine in 11 mining forest reserves. Four of the companies were to operate in globally significant biodiversity areas. As of August 13, 2024, our investigations also uncovered that at least 25 companies had filed 32 applications to mine and prospect in 24 forest reserves.

The investigative report produced a groundswell for the immediate revocation of the regulation. A month after publication, the Attorney General of the past government instructed the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation, along with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to “suspend the enforcement of the Environmental Protection (Mining in Forest Reserves) Regulations 2023 (LI 2462) with immediate effect”.

However, it took the incumbent government to actually revoke the law, reverting the regulation of Ghana’s forest reserves to an administrative framework for mining called the Environmental Guideline for Mining in Production Forest Reserves, which permits limited mining of not more than 2% of timber production reserves.

YOU MAY ALSO WANT TO READ:

Forest Invasion: Companies owned by Wontumi, Kumasi mayor & others scramble to mine in Ghana’s forest reserves – The Fourth Estate (thefourthestategh.com)

Forest invasion: Land Minister’s half-truth to Parliament & the contradictions fueling mining in Ghana’s forest reserves

Forest Invasion: Minerals Commission deletes critical information about mining companies after The Fourth Estate revelations – The Fourth Estate

December 30, 2025
Property tax sham:How Ghana lost millions in property rates

Millions of Ghanaians are required by law to pay property tax, yet many say they see no benefit from it.

Roads remain broken, drains unfinished, and streets dark, feeding public mistrust for the mandatory tax required under Section 152 of the Local Government Act.

The law states that ” The amount of a general or special rate due in respect of any premises shall, until paid, be a charge on the premises and that charge shall have priority over any other claims against the premises except claims of the Government.”

In 2023, the Akufo-Addo government rolled out a digital property tax system, selling it as a fix for years of poor property tax collection. It was meant to make payment easier, seal leakages, and boost local development.

Instead, something went wrong. Assemblies across the country began recording a sharp decline in revenue, even as property owners received higher and sometimes unexplained bills.

Behind the system was a private company most taxpayers had never heard of, operating with little public scrutiny. Local revenue officers watched helplessly as their collections declined.

This documentary follows the money, the data, and the decisions behind Ghana’s digital property tax experiment—and asks how a reform meant to build trust ended up breaking it.

December 10, 2025
The Terrible NLA-KGL Deal: NCA directs telecos to release data on KGL transactions

The National Communications Authority (NCA) has directed all telecommunications companies in Ghana to provide the National Lottery Authority (NLA) with information on all financial transactions related to KGL Technology’s operation of NLA’s 5/90 lottery.

MTN, Airtel Tigo (AT) and Telecel (Vodafone) are to furnish the NLA with records of funds that passed through the *959# short code, the Director-General of NLA, Mohammed Abdul-Salam, has told The Fourth Estate in an interview.

The NCA’s directive comes on the heels of investigations by The Fourth Estate, which prompted the NLA to write to KGL, the telecom companies, and the NCA to reconcile accounts that have been unavailable to the NLA since 2019, when the NLA-KGL deal became operational.

As the issuer and regulator of the USSD short codes, the NCA’s directive is aimed at ensuring that the telecom companies comply with the NLA’s request.

Mr. Abdul-Salam explained that the NCA’s directive also aims to prevent the telecommunication companies from giving the excuse that they cannot provide the data requested by the NLA without the authorization of their regulator.

“The NCA’s letter is to reinforce the position that they needed to make that data available to us,” Mr. Abdul- Salam told The Fourth Estate.

Investigations by The Fourth Estate had revealed that the state was losing revenue through a questionable series of licensing contracts that were signed between the NLA and KGL under the previous government. The contracts essentially handed over the NLA’s most lucrative business to KGL for what amounts to a pittance in commercial terms.

In 2024 for example, KGL made GHC3 billion in revenue from operating the NLA’s 5/90 lottery online via USSD. Per the licence granted by NLA, KGL was to pay a paltry GHC 157.6 million in total as license fees and contributions to the Good Causes Foundation, the corporate social responsibility unit of the NLA.

A 15-year exclusive license that was granted KGL mandates that the NLA and KGL shall conduct weekly reconciliation of revenues.

Paragraph 17 of the Exclusive Licence granted to KGL states: “The parties shall conduct weekly reconciliations on transactions (pre- and post-draw, revenue, wins, prize and prize payments) during the term of this licence. For the avoidance of doubt, the reconciliation is to ensure that there are no discrepancies in the financial records of the NLA and the Licensee (KGL), pursuant to Section 51 of Act 722.”

Despite this clear provision requiring reconciliations every week, such weekly reconciliations have never been carried out since the licence was granted to KGL in early 2024. As a result of the disregard for the weekly reconciliations, the NLA does not even know how much sales and revenue KGL is making from the sale of its 5/90 lottery.

When NLA wrote to demand the records from KGL, their reply was to request that the reconciliation be deferred to 2026. But NLA refused, insisting that the terms of the contract must be complied with. KGL then wrote to plead to be given additional time to submit the data.

Background

In 2019, the then Director-General of the NLA, Kofi Osei Ameyaw, signed a controversial three-year contract with KGL Technology Limited to operate the NLA’s 5/90 lottery online via a USSD code. Upon expiration of the contract in 2022, Samuel Awuku (who succeeded Osei Ameyaw as director general) and his board renewed the contract with KGL for a 10-year period.

But before the expiration of the 10 years, in 2024, the then Director-General of the NLA, Mr. Awuku and his Board, chaired by Gary Nimako Marfo, signed a new contract with KGL, granting the company exclusive rights to operate the 5/90 lottery online via USSD. This new contract is for 15 years (from 2024 to 2039) with an automatic renewal for another five years.

Mr. Awuku and his board also signed two other contracts for KGL to operate the 5/90 online lottery in Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire. These two contracts were for 10 years each.

The Fourth Estate’s investigations revealed that annual revenue to KGL from the NLA’s 5/90 online lottery in 2024 alone was over GHC3 billion or over GHC250 million each month.

In an interview with the Group Chairman of KGL, Alex Apau Dadey, he confirmed to The Fourth Estate that the company’s 2024 revenue from the NLA’s 5/90 online lottery was over GHC3 billion.

Under the terms of the deal, however, KGL was supposed to pay a total of just GHC157.6 million to NLA in 2024, for all three contracts in Ghana, Nigeria, and Côte d’Ivoire. This amount was to be increased annually by just 10% each year. The amount that was to be paid in 2024 represented a paltry 5.2% of the revenue KGL generated from the NLA’s prime business.

The National Lotto Act, 2006 (Act 722) does not allow any private company to operate any form of lottery in Ghana. It makes the operations of the lottery in Ghana the sole preserve of the NLA. Section 4(1)-(2) of the law states: “A person other than the Authority shall not operate any form of lottery.”

“A person who contravenes subsection (1) commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine of not more than two thousand and five hundred penalty units or imprisonment for a term of not more than three years or both.”

The law, however, requires the NLA to contract private companies to sell lottery as Lotto Marketing Companies (LMCs).

The NLA Act also requires that all proceeds from the sales of lottery by LMCs should be paid into what is called the Lotto Account of the NLA. From this account, the NLA is then supposed to pay stipulated commissions to the LMCs.

The Fourth Estate’s investigations, however, showed that NLA’s deals with KGL are unusual at best and illegitimate at worst. First of all, KGL’s revenues do not go into the Lotto Account. In fact, the NLA does not even know how much KGL makes in sales. Secondly, while the law requires all LMCs to be paid a commission by the NLA, under the current deal, KGL is paying the NLA what the licence agreement describes as “revenue share.”

In 2024, the NLA was paying LMCs a commission of 25% on their sales. In these exclusive and monopolistic contracts, what KGL paid the NLA in 2024 amounted to just 5.2% of the company’s 2024 revenue.

Meanwhile, official documents from the State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA) have revealed that NLA’s revenues have been on a steep decline from GHC366 million in 2015 to GHC296.58 million in 2023.

November 25, 2025
We received GHC200,000 from Good Causes Foundation, not GHC400,000 — KGL denies amounts in NLA’s disbursement records

The KGL Group says it received GHC200,000 from the NLA Good Causes Foundation as a donation to the KGL Foundation and not GHC400,000 as contained in the disbursement records of the NLA.

The KGL group said it received the GHC200,000 from the Good Causes Foundation during the launch of its foundation in 2023.

The Fourth Estate has been investigating the disbursements of funds from the NLA’s Good Causes Foundation since it was established in 2021, and found several questionable expenditures that deviated from what the law intended it for.

Section 2(3) of the National Lotto Act, 2006, (Act 722) states that: “There shall be conducted as part of the operation of National Lotto, a lottery with the object of providing care and protection for the physically or mentally afflicted, the needy, the aged, orphans and destitute children.”

The Fourth Estate’s analysis of the disbursements of funds from the NLA Good Causes Foundation showed that, a substantial part of the nearly GHC50 million that the foundation disbursed went into questionable enterprises. It included sponsorships for conferences, awards nights, gala dinners, comedy shows, festivals, and donations to political and business elites.

According to the NLA’s data, two separate payments of GHC300,000 (cheque number: 689432) and GHC100,000 (cheque number: 306453) were made to the KGL Foundation to support its activities. However, the company insisted it received only half of the amount captured in the NLA’s database.

“Our review of the KGL Foundation account indicates that GHC200,000.00 received from Good Causes Foundation was donated by the former Director-General, Mr. Sammy Awuku, on behalf of the NLA during the KGL Foundation’s formal launch event as part of its fundraising initiatives, which was open to all partners of the Group,” the company said in an email response to The Fourth Estate.

“No records of any other transactions from the Good Causes Foundation to the KGL Foundation have been found.”

KGL Foundation operates exclusively NLA’s multi-billion cedi 5/90 lotto, which in 2024 alone generated more than GHC 3 billion in revenue. Through the arrangement between the two, the NLA does not even know how much KGL makes in sales.

In an interview with The Fourth Estate, KGL Group Chairman, Alex Appau Dadey insisted that the foundation was not a beneficiary of the GHC 400, 000 mentioned as being contained in the NLA Good Causes Foundation’s database. He said the KGL Group invited the NLA to contribute to the KGL Foundation as a reciprocation for the millions the company spent on the NLA.

But many have questioned why funds meant for orphans and the mentally afflicted are being spent on an endowed organisation such as KGL that is said to be a financial lifeblood of the NLA. Others wonder why KGL can give and take from the same NLA even if what was received was GHC200,000 as claimed by KGL or GHC400,000 as contained in the NLA’s data.

Samuel Awuku’s response

The immediate past Director-General of the NLA, Samuel Awuku, while he said he could not recall the exact amount given to the KGL Foundation, justified the expenditure.

He said, given the contributions of KGL as a partner to the NLA, it was normal for the NLA to support the activities of KGL.

“So, the NLA receives a chunk of support per the contract with KGL, and we receive some support as part of Good Causes. I think it was once or twice. I think it was a collaboration, if I recall. It was something in the area of sports and development,” he guessed.

“There was no time I did that without informing the board. KGL gives in terms of support is over two million cedis every year as Good Causes, and when they also requested collaborative support, I don’t think it was anything out of the ordinary, looking at what we get from them.”

Mr. Awuku maintained that the NLA’s expenditures on collaborations never crossed the GHC200,000 mark. However, data from the Good Causes Foundation showed that the KGL Foundation received twice that amount.

In the end, KGL insisted it got half the money, while the NLA’s records show it was double. Between the denials, justifications, and fuzzy recollections, one thing is clear: the figures don’t add up – the vulnerable, who were supposed to benefit, are left with nothing but mathematical games.

October 1, 2025
Lottery Bonanza: How NLA gave away GHC3 billion prime business in exchange for peanuts

On February 6, 2025, the immediate past Director-General of the National Lottery Authority (NLA), and now Member of Parliament (MP) for Akuapem North, Samuel Awuku, delivered his maiden statement to the Ghanaian Parliament.

The focus of his statement was on how to enhance proceeds from the Lottery to support Ghana’s development.

In that grand speech, eloquently laced with examples of how the Lottery has contributed to the development of other countries, he cited as an example how funds from the lottery supported the construction of the famous Great Wall of China.

“As the immediate past Director General of the National Lottery Authority (NLA), I would like to bring to our attention the significant; yet overlooked, ways the Government can optimise the use of lottery proceeds, implement stricter measures against illegal lottery operations, and maximise revenue through innovative fiscal strategies, including tax incentives. This statement is also to highlight the best practices around the world that I believe Ghana could also learn from,” Mr. Awuku summarised the purpose of his speech to Parliament.

He then made recommendations on how to increase lottery proceeds and how proceeds can be spent.

But what the 41-year-old first-time MP did not disclose to Parliament was that, during his leadership, he signed off the most lucrative business of the NLA – the 5/90 online lottery – to a private company for peanuts.

In 2019, the then Director General of the NLA, Kofi Osei Ameyaw, signed a controversial three-year contract with a private company called KGL Technology Limited, to operate the NLA’s 5/90 lottery online via a USSD code (on mobile phone). Upon expiration of the contract in 2022, Mr. Awuku and his board renewed the contract with KGL for a 10-year period.

But before the expiration of the 10 years, in 2024, Mr. Awuku and his Board, Chaired by Gary Nimako Marfo, signed a new contract with KGL, granting the company exclusive rights to operate the 5/90 lottery online via USSD. This new contract was not for five years; not 10 years; but 15 years (from 2024 to 2039) with an automatic renewal for another five years.

Mr. Awuku and his board also signed two other contracts for KGL to operate the 5/90 online lottery in Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire. These two contracts were also not for one year; not for two years; and not for five years. They were for 10 years each.

The Fourth Estate’s investigations revealed that annual revenue to KGL from the NLA’s 5/90 online lottery in 2024 alone was over GHC3 billion or over GHC250 million each month.

In an interview with the Group Chairman of KGL, Alex Apau Dadey, he confirmed to The Fourth Estate that the company’s 2024 revenue from the NLA’s 5/90 online lottery was over GHC3 billion.

Under the contracts, however, KGL was supposed to pay a total of just GHC157.6 million to NLA in 2024, for all three contracts. This amount was to be increased annually by just 10% each year. The amount that was to be paid in 2024 represented a paltry 5.2% of the revenue KGL generated from the NLA’s prime business.

The National Lotto Act, 2006 (Act 722) does not allow any private company to operate any form of lottery in Ghana. It makes the operations of lottery in Ghana the sole preserve of the NLA. Section 4(1)-(2) of the law states: “ A person other than the Authority shall not operate any form of lottery.”
“ A person who contravenes subsection (1) commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine of not more than two thousand and five hundred penalty units or imprisonment for a term of not more than three years or both.”

The law, however, requires the NLA to contract private companies to sell lottery as Lotto Marketing Companies (LMCs).

Lotto Marketing Companies have, for ages, sold lotto on behalf of the NLA

The NLA Act also requires that all proceeds from the sales of lottery by LMCs should be paid into what is called the Lotto Account of the NLA. From this account, the NLA is then supposed to pay the LMCs a stipulated commission on their sales.

The Fourth Estate’s investigations, however, show that NLA’s contracts with KGL may be special ones. First of all, KGL’s revenue does not go into the Lotto Account. In fact, the NLA does not even know how much KGL makes in sales. Secondly, while the law requires all LMCs to be paid a commission by the NLA, under the contracts, KGL is rather paying the NLA what may be called a commission, but which the contracts describe as a “revenue share.”

In 2024, the NLA was paying LMCs a commission of 25% on their sales. In these exclusive and monopolistic contracts, what KGL paid the NLA in 2024 amounted to just 5.2% of the company’s 2024 revenue.

Meanwhile, official documents from the State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA) have revealed that NLA’s revenues have been on a steep decline from GHC366 million in 2015 to GHC296.58 million in 2023.

The Fourth Estate could not obtain figures for 2024, but sources close to the NLA say the NLA’s financial situation was not different in 2024.

As shown in the table below, our analysis indicates that since the contract with KGL, the NLA’s revenues have been going down.

Source: State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA): The table above provides details of NLA’s revenue earned from 2015 to 2023.

Despite the huge decline in the NLA’s revenue since its deal with KGL, Mr. Awuku, told The Fourth Estate that he left the NLA in a better financial position than when he took over.

He explained that before he was appointed the Director-General in 2021, the NLA was already in a pilot contract with KGL under which it paid the NLA GHC20 million in 2019 and GHC25 million in 2020 as collaboration revenue.

He said after the initial contract, there was to be a substantive contract in 2022, under which KGL would have been expected to pay GHC30 million in 2022 and an increment of GHC5 million every year until 2025 when the amount would have increased to GHC45 million.

He stated that instead of sticking with this contract, he renegotiated with KGL and got a better deal.

Mr. Awuku claimed he renegotiated the KGL contract from GHC26 million to GHC173 million even though he did not indicate where the GHC173 million was coming from since this amount does not reflect in the contract document.

“I believe that under the circumstances, the board got a better deal for the NLA. Nothing stops this [current] board from sitting down and also renegotiating,” he said.

While Mr. Awuku boasts that he had a better deal with KGL, he admitted that under his leadership NLA did not know how much KGL was making in revenue. It is, therefore, quite curious how Mr. Awuku and his board determined the amount KGL was to pay and on what basis he thinks he got a better deal for the NLA.

He also said the KGL deal took off the burden of payments of wins by the NLA. “Sometimes, you can have 200% wins against you. My time, there was a time I even recorded more than 200% win. My predecessors, some even recorded more. And there are times that is low. So, the average we pay is 55%,” he claimed. Mr. Awuku added that apart from the burden of paying wins, the NLA also has to pay commissions to the LMCs.

The Fourth Estate’s analysis of the NLA’s data shows that the average winnings of 2019 to 2023 is 48%.

Source: SIGA & NLA annual budget

Defending the deal, the Group Chairman of KGL said out of the over GHC3 billion his company earned in 2024, the company paid GHC87 million to the Ghana Revenue Authority and claimed GHC176 million was paid to the NLA. Even though he did not disclose any further expenses, he claimed the company made only GHC70 million as profit.

When asked to disclose further details of the company’s expenditure, Mr. Dadey, who is reported in the media as a former Finance Committee Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the UK ahead of the 2016 general elections, declined. “That data, you are not going to get it,” he said.

KGL uses the short code, *959#, to sell the 5/90 lottery and its Group Chairman told The Fourth Estate that the system requires a huge investment, which the NLA lacks.

“The NLA doesn’t have the resources to run the system; this is not a kid’s game. The government doesn’t have the capacity to do what we do. This is technology, and we hold the highest data in this country,” he bragged. “Can the NLA hold that data? Did they prove to you that they could hold such data? The cost of doing this is huge if you want to do it properly.”

Former Board Chairman declines interview

When The Fourth Estate contacted the NLA’s immediate past Board Chairman, Gary Nimako Marfo, he declined to comment and said all the details the team needed were captured in the minutes of the board.

More to come!

September 30, 2025
Sponsor and win: How NLA’s former Director-General, deputy won awards they sponsored

When business leaders from across the country lined up in 2023 and 2024 to receive awards from the Chief Executives Network, Ghana, the immediate-past Director General of the National Lottery Authority (NLA) was among those honoured.

On the surface, it seemed like the celebration of hard work, but the reason for honouring him may perhaps have had little to do with business acumen.

In 2023 and 2024, the Chief Executives Network, Ghana, organisers of the awards received multiple sponsorships from the NLA, totalling GHC350,000 for their events—business cocktails, CEOs summit, CEO Awards, and presidential gala dinner.

These funds were from the coffers of NLA Good Causes Foundation and were meant to provide “care and protection for the physically or mentally afflicted, the needy, the aged, orphans, and destitute children.”

However, these funds were pumped into questionable enterprises, including awards, galas, festivals, dinner events, and conferences, among others.

Overall Best Public Sector CEO, 2023

On the two occasions the NLA sponsored the CEO awards, Mr Awuku walked away with an honour. In 2023, he was adjudged the Overall Best Public Sector CEO. In that year, the NLA’s Good Causes Foundation blew GHC150,000 on the CEOs Summit.

The following year, the NLA spent GHC200,000 on the same event. Again, Mr Awuku retained his crown – Overall Best Public Sector CEO.

Again, in 2024, he received a ‘special recognition’ honour at the Ghana Gaming Lottery Awards, an event bankrolled with GHC100,000 from the NLA to Syndicated Entertainment Solution Limited, the organisers.

The story of his deputy, Anna Horma Miezah, is no different. In 2023 and 2024, the NLA doled out nearly GHC50,000 to the Governance and Business Boardroom, the organizers of the National Governance and Business Leadership Awards.

Top Transformational Deputy MD Leadership Award, 2023

In 2023, Ms. Miezah received the Top Transformational Deputy MD Leadership Award, an event the NLA sponsored with GHC20,000. The following year, the authority spent GHC26,940, and Ms Miezah was the recipient of the Exemplary Woman in Corporate Governance Award.

NLA documents also showed that any time the director general and his deputy won an award, there was a special publicity plan that included live presenter mentions on television and radio, as well as adverts on digital platforms and in newspaper publications.

When The Fourth Estate contacted Mr Awuku on the matter, he insisted that he won the awards on merit.

“For example, my first award, which I received in 2022/2023, the NLA supported it, but I was not an awardee,” he said. “I received an award in 2023 and 2024, but in 2022, the NLA supported. It was subsequently that I was awarded. Many of the organizations at the Ghana CEO summit support the organization of the CEO summit. It is not only the NLA.”

Contrary to Mr. Awuku’s claims, The Fourth Estate did not find evidence of the NLA sponsoring the CEO awards in 2022.

ALSO READ: NLA Good Causes? How funds meant for the poor and orphans were blown on awards, galas and the rich

September 26, 2025
NLA Good Causes? How funds meant for the poor and orphans were blown on awards, galas and the rich

On the fenceless campus of a school at Battor Manya in the Volta Region, two boys aggressively stared at each other. They uttered no words. They just growled.

Then one of them took off, running towards an uncompleted building. The others followed.

The two suddenly stopped at the entrance of the building.

About 20 metres away, another group of children huddled together. They hugged and shouted names. One bulky student, with the voice of a ring-side announcer, screamed invectives that are common in coastal communities in Accra. They were directed at no one. His peers burst into laughter.

One of them started crying. The tears flowed unrestrained.

A teacher standing by smiled.

In everyday life, the sight of crying children can easily irritate or draw sympathy from parents, but in Three Kings Special School, learning to cry is part of the curriculum.

Unlike their counterparts without disabilities, some children living with intellectual disabilities are unable to express their emotions.

“Some of them don’t even know danger. They don’t feel any pain. If they’re in a situation in which there is pain, it is very difficult for them to express it,” the headmaster of the school, Wisdom Asantide, said. “Speech is a problem for them. So, if that person can cry, then you’ll know that something serious is happening to him or her.”

While the teachers and caregivers worry about the emotional growth of these students, there is also another big problem that keeps the school administrators scratching their heads. The school currently houses 115 students from age 12 to the mid-30s in two congested dormitories.

The building the boys had sprinted toward without a second thought, serving as a backdrop for their games, is itself part of the problem the headmaster loses sleep over.

Inside the uncompleted four-block dormitory, which has stalled for more than a decade, nature has invited itself and turned the corridors into a habitat for tree, shrubs and creeping plants—a disturbing monument of waste.

Such is the nature of the thicket that one would struggle to walk through the verdant greenery. The entire space has the eerie appearance of a haunted home.

The project was meant to solve the accommodation needs of the students and caregivers who are forced into dormitories meant for 50 people but now taking 150.

But more than a decade later, it is now home to nature.

It was because of the needs of students and other vulnerable people like the learners in Three Kings Special School that the National Lottery Authority (NLA) Good Causes Foundation was set up.

However, the Fourth Estate has found questionable use of the funds.

In 2021, the National Lottery Authority (NLA), under the leadership of Samuel Awuku, its then Director General, set up what it calls the Good Causes Foundation.

According to NLA documents, the foundation was established in response to provisions of the law that established the authority, requiring it to set up a special lottery for the needy in society.

The said law is section 2(3) of Act 722.

The section states, “There shall be conducted as part of the operation of National Lotto, a lottery with the object of providing care and protection for the physically or mentally afflicted, the needy, the aged, orphans, and destitute children.”

However, contrary to the purpose of the Good Causes Foundation as outlined in the said section, the foundation spent millions of cedis on glamorous events and other questionable enterprises from 2021 to 2024.

Data available to The Fourth Estate on the foundation’s disbursements shows that a lot of the money was spent on sponsorship of elite organisations and events. For example, while the EMY Africa Awards received GHC90,000, the Ghana CEO Awards got GHC350,000. Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko’s Africa Prosperity Network Awards had GHC250,000, while the GIPC’s Ghana Club 100 Awards had GHC400,000. The Ashanti Business Leaders Excellence Awards received GHC50,000, while Glitz Africa publications also got GHC80,000 for the Ghana Women of the Year award.

Funds meant for the needy were spent on some awards for some of Africa’s most powerful elites

Winners of the CEO Awards in 2023

The Information Services Department (ISD) received GHC40,000 for its Government PROs Awards, and the Governance and Business Leadership Awards secured GHC20,000, while the then Ministry of Public Enterprises got GHC50,000 for a study tour of Singapore.

The National Labour Commission was handed GHC 180,000 for local conferences and GHC 70,000 to attend an international labour conference in Geneva, while GHC 50,000 was committed to the fifth anniversary celebration of the free senior high school programme. JIT Magazine and Diary also had GHC100,000 for the presidential diary publication.

It did not stop there. The NLA, under Mr Awuku, now Member of Parliament for Akuapem North, also spent funds meant for the destitute on the construction of police stations and an astroturf in the constituency he would later contest elections and win.

The NLA also gave out GHC50,000 for the memoir project of former Black Stars captain, Asamoah Gyan, one of the country’s richest footballers, who lives in a USD 3 million mansion.

There are many more …

The Chief of Staff’s office received GHC350,000 for the Independence Day fanfare, while MPs from both sides of the political divide received more than one million cedis for pet causes. Meanwhile, the Attorney General’s office had GHC570,000 for conferences and seminars.

THE then Chief of Staff’s Office/ Presidency received funding from the Good Causes Foundation

The NLA gave out these freebies at a time when psychiatric hospitals in the country remained chronically underfunded and overcrowded, and orphanages relied on charitable donations to survive.

Mr Awuku defends expenses

The immediate-past Director-General of the National Lottery Authority, Samuel Awuku, defended the Foundation’s spending, describing it as part of its mandate to serve society.

“The law allows the NLA, in consultation with its board and the Finance Ministry, to support broader obligations to society,” he argued, noting that the authority had also supported prisons, the Ghana Police Service, and community-based projects.

Mr. Awuku could not, however, identify specific provisions of the law that permitted such expenditures. Instead, he pointed to the pillars of the Good Causes Foundation – Health, Education, Sports and Youth Development, and Arts and Culture – as the basis for the spending.

“If you’re going strictly by the act, it would turn out that so many things that the NLA has been doing are illegal,” he told The Fourth Estate. “If you take the European Lottery, for example, their motto is for the benefit of society, so they don’t make profit. I realised that the very reason for the establishment of the NLA is to provide or support good causes and that’s [what] all lottery bodies all over the world [are doing].”

He also claimed that the use of the funds for such events was a marketing strategy to put the NLA in the minds of business owners to patronize the Caritas platform.

When The Fourth Estate noted that the law mandates the NLA to generate revenue for the state, Mr. Awuku responded that the authority “does not operate in isolation but as part of international bodies.”

Asked about Good Causes Foundation funds being used for Independence Day celebrations, he said it was not unusual, adding, “The Office of the Chief of Staff requests funding for some of these events.”

Former Coordinator declines to comment

When The Fourth Estate reached out to the former Coordinator of the Good Causes Foundation, Amma Frimpong, she declined to comment.

“Please, you do realise that I still work for the National Lottery Authority, and I’m bound by its laws and as such, I’m under no obligation to respond to anything outside its mandate?”

Editor’s note: Below is the list of the first 100 beneficiaries. The Fourth Estate will subsequently publish the full list of all beneficiaries.

GOOD CAUSES BENEFICIARIES FIRST 100 Download

September 24, 2025
Illegal miners rack up GHC3.5 million in unpaid electricity bills, threaten to kill ECG staff

Illegal miners at the RMG Apinto concession in Prestea Huni-Valley have accumulated nearly GHC3.5 million in unpaid electricity bills as of August 2025, The Fourth Estate has uncovered.

Their last payment to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) was on July 23, 2025—just GHC 150,000.

The bills are ballooning despite assurances from the MP for the area, Robert Wisdom Cudjoe, who promised the ECG that the illegal miners would settle their debts after the National Security seized the concession from RMG Mining and handed it over to an NDC-aligned group.

Although the ECG has reported the matter to the police, no action has been taken against the illegal miners who are being led by a National Democratic Congress activist, Ebenezer Amemagakpor, alias Commander or Aboyanga.

The ECG staff say the group has threatened to shoot and kill them if they attempt to cut power to the site. The high-tension poles connecting the mine are now guarded by the same group controlling the mine.

Ebenezer Amemagakpor alias Commander is the leader of the illegal miners

“We sent our staff to disconnect them because we have not given them permission to reconnect,” a source at the ECG head office in Accra told The Fourth Estate.

“When we went there to disconnect them, they came after us with thugs. They threatened us that if we tried to disconnect them, they would shoot us.”

Party officials in the constituency defend the MP’s involvement as a justified attempt to restore the concession to its rightful owners, who they claim were deprived of the mine by the Akufo-Addo administration.

tonnes of ore mined from the underground pit

Background

The Fourth Estate on September 9, 2025, published a story that drew attention to how National Security stormed a licensed small-scale mining site in the Prestea Huni-Valley municipality in March this year, driving away the owners and taking over the site.

The site was subsequently handed over to persons believed to be associated with the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) for illegal mining/galamsey. This group of illegal miners is led by Ebenezer Amemagakpor, alias Commander or Aboyanga, a known NDC activist who also runs a gold-buying agency, known as Nyame Tease. After the takeover of the site, which operates using high-voltage/high-power-consuming pumps, the legitimate mine owners, RMG Mining Limited, reported the matter to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and asked for power to be disconnected to the mine to avoid the accumulation of bills in RMG’s name.

ECG disconnected power to the site, but for a totally different reason. It claimed RMG hadn’t paid its bills, which at the time stood at GHC 1.1 million

NDC MP for the Prestea Huni-Valley, Robert Wisdom Cudjoe, wrote to ECG to request for reconnection to enable what was illegal mining to continue

He told ECG that national security had tasked him to oversee the mine until the resolution of a supposed conflict over the ownership mine.

“I wish to bring to your attention that there was a recent dispute between two mining contractors over the ownership of the concession, which required the intervention of national security. Following their directive, I have been tasked with overseeing the site until an amicable resolution is reached,” Mr. Cudjoe’s letter to the ECG said.

In the letter, the MP described the site in question as a community mine site. But at the time of his letter, the government, under John Mahama, had banned all community mining, and so there couldn’t have been a community mine site.

As the unpaid bills pile up, RMG has written several letters to the ECG asking it to disconnect power to the site, but ECG officials told The Fourth Estate that they would not risk the lives of their employees

YOU MAY ALSO WANT TO READ

Licensed mine hijacked; National Security accused; NDC MP in the mix – The Fourth Estate

NDC group admits leveraging political power for illegal mining with MP’s support – The Fourth Estate

September 19, 2025
NDC group admits leveraging political power for illegal mining with MP’s support

Days after The Fourth Estate exposed how a group aligned with the National Democratic Congress (NDC) forcefully took over a licensed mine in Prestea Huni-Valley with the support of National Security, an official of the party has confirmed the involvement of the Member of Parliament for the area.

At a press conference in response to The Fourth Estate’s publication, Mohammed Awal, the NDC Communications Officer for the constituency, told the media that the lawmaker had done nothing wrong. Again, the NDC Prestea Huni-Valley Communications Officer claims that the MP’s action was about “restoring sanity, ensuring rightful owners reclaim their operations, preventing further exploitation.”

Mr. Awal’s justification for the seizure of the concession belonging to RMG Mining was that prior to the New Patriotic Party coming to power in 2016, the mine had been operated by Task Mining, but through political machinations, officials of RMG snatched it.

Mr Awal also confirmed the involvement of National Security in the forceful takeover of RMG mine.

“Hon [Robert Wisdom] Cudjoe’s involvement was not to enable illegal mining but to restore order. Acting under National Security, the MP facilitated mediation efforts, including the Blue Gate meeting, to resolve longstanding disputes caused by these prior takeovers,” Mr. Awal said.

“Hon [Robert Wisdom] Cudjoe has consistently championed the interests of his constituents, prioritising lawful and community-driven mining practices over partisan exploitation.”

He also claims that the MP is not the problem but the solution, and adds that he (the MP) prioritises local stakeholders such Task Mining, the company which he claims was unjustly kicked out of the concession for RMG Mining to take over.

The MP for Prestea Huni-Valley(right), Robert Wisdom Cudjoe, with the NDC activist, Ebenezer Amemagakpor, WHO LEADS THE ILLEGAL MINERS AT THE Apinto site

The Fourth Estate’s searches at the Office of the Registrar of Companies revealed that Task Mining is not a registered company, nor does the company have a mining lease or an environmental permit as required by Ghana’s mining laws.

Our investigations, however, showed that RMG Mining was granted a five-year mining lease in June 2023, which expires in 2028.

RMG Mining also obtained a mining operating permit from the Minerals Commission in the same month and subsequently, an environmental permit from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in October 2023.

What Mr. Awal failed to mention is that, the illegal miners who took over the concession in March this year after National Security ejected RMG Mining have no legal right to be there – no mining lease, no environmental permit – just muscle and ammunition, and backed by political power. The takeover was led by NDC activist Ebenezer Amemagakpor, who now displays portraits of President John Mahama and the MP, Robert Wisdom Cudjoe, in the captured RMG office, a show of political muscle without paperwork.

Portraits of President Mhama and Presstea Huni-Valley MP, Robert w. Cudjoe, hang in the office of the illegal miners at the Apinto site

He also failed to mention that thugs employed by illegal miners on the RMG site have chased out officials of the Electricity Company of Ghana who attempted to cut off the power illegally connected to the site.

Background

The Fourth Estate on September 9, 2025, published a story that drew attention to how National Security stormed a licensed small-scale mining site in the Prestea Huni-Valley municipality in March this year, drove away the owners and took over the site.

The site was subsequently handed over to persons believed to be associated with the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) for illegal mining/galamsey. This group of illegal miners is led by Ebenezer Amemagakpor, alias Commander or Aboyanga, a known NDC activist who also runs a gold-buying agency, known as Nyame Tease. After the takeover of the site, which operates using high-voltage/high-power-consuming pumps, the legitimate mine owners, RMG Mining Limited, reported the matter to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and asked it to disconnect power to the site to avoid the accumulation of bills in the company’s name.

ECG obliged and disconnected power to the site. However, this was for a different reason. It claimed RMG hadn’t paid its bills.

NDC MP for the area, Robert Wisdom Cudjoe, wrote to ECG to request for reconnection to enable what was illegal mining to continue

He told ECG that national security had tasked him to oversee the mine until the resolution of a supposed conflict over the mine.

“I wish to bring to your attention that there was a recent dispute between two mining contractors over the ownership of the concession, which required the intervention of national security. Following their directive, I have been tasked with overseeing the site until an amicable resolution is reached,” Mr. Cudjoe’s letter to the ECG said.

In the letter, the MP described the site in question as a community mine site. But at the time of his letter, the government had banned all community mining, and so there couldn’t have been a community mine site.

While the illegal mining boomed at the site, some foreign nationals joined. The Fourth Estate can reveal that at least six Chinese nationals were on the site as of July 17, 2025, operating and repairing mining equipment, in violation of Ghana’s Minerals and Mining Act, which prohibits foreigners from participating in small-scale mining.

Section 96 of the Minerals and Mining Act states that “a non-Ghanaian or a foreign company shall not provide mining support services for a small-scale mining operation.”

ALSO READ: Licensed mine hijacked; National Security accused; NDC MP in the mix

September 17, 2025
Licensed mine hijacked: National Security accused; NDC MP in the mix

In March this year, a group of armed men, alleged to be National Security operatives, stormed a licensed mining site at Apinto, a community in Prestea Huni-Valley municipality in the Western Region, drove away the owners, and took over the site.

The site was subsequently handed over to persons believed to be associated with the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) for illegal mining/galamsey. This group of illegal miners is led by Ebenezer Amemagakpor, alias Commander or Aboyanga, a known NDC activist.

Ebenezer Amemagakpor, alias Commander or Aboyanga, is a known NDC activist

After the takeover of the site, which operates using high-voltage/high-power-consuming pumps, the legitimate mine owners, RMG Mining Limited, reported the matter to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and asked it to disconnect power to the site to avoid the accumulation of bills in the company’s name.

ECG obliged and disconnected power to the site. However, this was for a different reason. It claimed RMG hadn’t paid its bills.

NDC MP for the area, Robert Wisdom Cudjoe, wrote to ECG to request for reconnection to enable what was illegal mining to continue.

The member of Parliament for Prestea Huni-Valley poses with NDC activist Ebenezer Amemagakpor(Commander), who is in charge of the site.

He told ECG that national security had tasked him to oversee the mine until the resolution of a supposed conflict over the mine.

“I wish to bring to your attention that there was a recent dispute between two mining contractors over the ownership of the concession, which required the intervention of national security. Following their directive, I have been tasked with overseeing the site until an amicable resolution is reached,” Mr. Cudjoe’s letter to the ECG said.

In the letter, the MP described the site in question as a community mine site. But at the time of his letter, the government had banned all community mining, and so there couldn’t have been a community mine site.

“It has come to my attention that this disconnection has severely impacted the mining site’s ability to operate, particularly in powering pumps to dewater the pits,” Mr. Cudjoe wrote in the letter addressed to the Tarkwa District Manager of ECG, Benjamin Odame Thompson.

“If the situation persists, there is a high risk of over-flooding, which could lead to operational setbacks and potential job losses for many youths engaged in mining activities at the site.”

Power was subsequently reconnected, but ECG says it did not do it. Rather, ECG officials insist, it was the illegal miners who climbed the high-tension poles to reconnect the mine to the electricity grid.

ECG staff say they have been threatened repeatedly that they would be shot or killed if they attempt to cut power again. The high-tension poles connecting the mine are now guarded by the same groups controlling the mine.

“We sent our staff to disconnect them because we have not given them permission to reconnect,” a source at the ECG head office in Accra told The Fourth Estate.

“When we went there to disconnect them, they came after us with thugs. They threatened us that if we tried to disconnect them, they would shoot us.”

Chinese nationals at the site

While the illegal mining boomed at the site, some foreign nationals joined. The Fourth Estate can reveal that at least six Chinese nationals were on the site as of July 17, 2025, operating and repairing mining equipment, in violation of Ghana’s Minerals and Mining Act, which prohibits foreigners from participating in small-scale mining.

Section 96 of the Minerals and Mining Act states that “a non-Ghanaian or a foreign company shall not provide mining support services for a small-scale mining operation.”

Despite this, mining activities persist on the RMG concession with the active involvement of the Chinese illegal mining, while the site accumulates electricity bills.

ECG bills accumulating

The illegal mining operation continues and has racked up more than GHC2 million in electricity bills, ECG records show. Only GHC 150,000 has been paid as of August 4.

RMG Mining, the legitimate owners of the concession, continued to complain about the illegal takeover of their mine by alleged National Security operatives and the subsequent conversion of the mine into a galamsey site.

They were subsequently summoned to Blue Gate—the National Security Head Office in Accra.

The company’s managing director represented RMG Mining at the meeting. The MP also attended. The Managing Director of RMG, Osman Bukari, told The Fourth Estate that at the Blue Gate meeting, “the agreement was that [the MP] should allow me to go and start work. But we’ve never been allowed back.”

MP responds

The MP remembers differently.

The MP claims he was only asked to help resolve tensions between “two contractors” and insists he had no personal stake in the mine.

It is curious how National Security will become a mediator of a supposed dispute over a mine site, bypassing the regulator, the Minerals Commission.

When the MP was asked about this, he retorted, “Do you think National Security does not know about the Minerals Commission?”

When The Fourth Estate asked him which of the two factions contesting the concession he was backing to operate the mine, he said, apart from the National Security directive, his involvement had become necessary because of what he described as a leadership crisis at the site.

The MP, who is also a board member of the Minerals Income Investment Fund, added that the workers had been left at the site without direction.

However, Osman Bukari, the Managing Director of RMG, dismissed the claim and insisted that all workers of RMG Mining Limited were driven away from the site when National Security raided it.

The Alleged National Security Operatives WHO stormed the site

ECG sources say the matter was reported to the police, but the police have failed to act on it.

When contacted, the Western Central Police Commander denied knowledge of the incident, saying he was on leave when it happened.

National Security ignores request for interview

The Fourth Estate sent two letters requesting interviews with Col. Robert Talleh, the Director of Operations at National Security, and DCOP Abdul-Osman Razak, the National Security Coordinator, to clarify issues around its operations at the mine and the illegal takeover.

Neither of them has responded.

Col Robert Talleh, chaired the meeting between RMG Limited, the MP, and others.

YOU MAY ALSO WANT TO READ:

Full details: Illegal mining spree on Manhyia-linked concession

Former Chief of Staff’s son, Amewu’s brother, others hold concessions on ravaged riverbanks despite Akufo-Addo’s ban

September 9, 2025