|
Five companies have submitted bids for the national lottery licence to run the first ever lottery scheme in Malawi.
This follows requests by the National Lotteries Board (NLB) for interested investors to put forward proposals for the same in August this year.
The five bidders are: Editek/IT Centre, Lottery Management Limited, LVK World Trade, Yoshida Gaming Investment and Mwayi Lottery. Monday, November 15 was the deadline for the submission of the bids
During a bid opening ceremony held in Blantyre Tuesday, the NLB said a bid evaluation committee comprising experts and advisors would start the evaluation exercise soon after the opening ceremony.
Ishmael Mtalimanja, chairman of the bid evaluation committee said that by the end of this month, the board will announce three short-listed bidders who will undergo a detailed evaluation process.
By mid December, said Mtalimanja, the board will start visiting sites where the companies want to operate from before announcing the preferred bidder early January, 2005.
“If all goes according to plan, the inauguration of lottery sales should occur by May 2005 because we don’t want any undue delays,” said Mtalimanja.
The NLB is an executive non-departmental public body formed after the enactment of the Lotteries Act in September 2003 to facilitate the introduction of lottery activities in Malawi.
The board’s duties are to ensure smooth operation of the national lottery and to protect the interests of every participant in the lottery scheme. It is also responsible for the security of net lottery proceeds.
The NLB has nine members—all appointed by the Finance Minister—with the corporate responsibility for ensuring that the board fulfils the aims and objectives and complies with any statutory or/and administrative requirements for the use of public funds.
Some of the areas the NLB will fund include charities, social projects, arts, culture and national heritage; sports and recreation plus “any other good causes the Finance Minister may advise.”
According to Mtalimanja, 50 percent of the proceeds will go to winners as prizes, 30 percent will fund the above activities through a National Lottery Distribution Fund.
He said the successful lottery operator will get 15 percent while the remaining five percent will go to the ticket sellers.
Mtalimanja said the successful bidder will have to have a good track record of financial capability and comply with other bidding requirements.
“In fact, we will seriously probe the bidders to ensure that they don’t use the national lottery as a money laundering tool,” he said.
|
