Addis Ababa — The National Lottery Administration says it fell 2.7 million Br short of its targeted profit for the current fiscal year due to competition from local development agencies which are also selling lottery tickets.

Reporting to the Trade and Investment Affairs Standing Committee of Parliament on Wednesday, May 23, 2007, an official of the Administration said it targeted 17.5 million Br in net profit this fiscal year, but managed only 14.8 million Br.

Shewalem Mengi, Sales and Market Development Department head, said the Administration usually sold four types of lotteries at a time. These are its brands Bingo, Instant and Regular lotteries as well as one lottery issued by the local development associations to generate money for their work. He says this arrangement has affected the sales income of the Administration, leading to the decrease in revenue.

Shewalem told Fortune that there were five lotteries circulating in the market this year alone, issued by the Tigray Development Association, Wolayta Development Association, Selti Development Association, Ethiopian Youth for Peace and Development Association and Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Authority (DPPA).

"We do not consider the lost revenue a loss as such. We believe it is our contribution to the development effort of these associations. Our support to these associations through the distribution of their lotteries also has a promotional function to the National Lottery Administration," Shewalem said.

DPPA issued a lottery this year to generate money in support of people affected by the flood in Dire Dawa last year. The lottery was circulated from the end of March to the first week of May 2007, and was projected to generate 7.5 million Br. Some 5.8 million Br worth of this lottery was distributed through the network of the National Lottery Administration and the remaining tickets, worth 1.8 million Br, were distributed by DPPA itself.

In addition, the Ethiopian Millennium Celebration Secretariat has also been circulating a lottery since May 16, 2007, which is expected to generate 20 million Br.

According to Yohanes G. Silassie (PhD), head of Resource Mobilisation at the Millennium Secretariat, the money generated through the lottery would be allocated for the construction of a youth centre in Addis Abeba.

In the last nine months, the Administration spent 7.6 Million Br on printing of lottery tickets, out of which 4.3 million Br was spent for the Instant lottery printing.

The National Lottery Administration, which is accountable to Ministry of Revenue(MoR), was established in 1951. It has 34 branches and 60 agents across the country.