48 years as lotto receiver • The experience of Daa Paulie

AT 24, Paulina Mansa Gollo assumed duty as a lotto receiver of the then Department of National Lotteries, now National Lotteries Authority (NLA) and at 74 she is active on the job.

Over the decades she served has her customers smoothly and diligently without any pause.

Popularly known as Daa Paulie in Ho, she started work on August 15, 1974, in her kiosk near Tarso Hotel in Ho.

That was after she completed the Ho-Kpodzi E.P. Middle School.

Daa Paulie said she earlier applied for many jobs with little success.

At one stage, she said she trained as a typist and worked briefly as a secretary with a law firm.

Daa Paulie also trained as a Hello Girl (telephone operator) and was offered that job by the then Post and Telecommunications (P&T).

However, that job offer coincided with that of a lotto receiver.

Weighing the two, Daa Paulie chose the lotto kiosk because with that she would be allowed to bring her newborn son to work, unlike the other.

“So, I started working as a lotto receiver with great zeal and enthusiasm,” she told this reporter.

The single mother of four said in those days, the lotto numbers were written in ink and the job entailed travelling to Accra weekly for the booklets and the draws were only on Saturday.

She said she was not daunted by the frequent trips to Accra, carrying her baby along because she was full of energy then.

TM: There are a lot of lotto receivers in Ho but you seem very popular. What is the secret?
Daa Paulie: You just have to be nice to the customers. They are the reason I am in the kiosk. I also do not allow any customer to jump the queue, no matter their status. I respect all my customers equally.

TM: So, have you never had any unpleasant encounters with a customer since you started this job?
Daa Paulie: That was in the days of the revolution when one political officeholder tried to jump the queue and I told him to join the queue and he got upset and invoked his political status, asking me if I knew him. But I told him to respect those who were in the queue before he arrived at the kiosk. We later resolved the issue amicably.

TM: Will you never retire?
Daa Paulie: I still have so much strength in me and I cannot just sit at home.

TM: What are your hobbies?
Daa Paulie: I play football for fun and I like acting on stage. I played volleyball when I was in middle school.

TM: Do you have a favourite meal?
Daa Paulie: Yes. Fufu and light soup…and Eworkpe and ama detsi.

TM: What is your message for the younger ones?
Daa Paulie: Accept your initial job offers and work with honesty and all your strength.

Daa Paulie is concerned that there are no retirement benefits for lotto receivers.

“Some years back, when I became the chairman of the Ho District Lotto Receivers Union, I fought hard for a pension scheme for the lotto receivers and brought officials from the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) to educate my colleagues and employers on the need to have a pension plan for us but that did not materialise,” she stated.

She said she would still support that cause for lotto receivers because “we are not allowed to take up any other job”.

Paulina Mansa Gollo (right) with some colleagues in her heydays

She explained that lotto receivers who were the backbone of the NLA lived only on the commission from their sales.

From the commissions she earned, she has been able to look after her children singlehandedly over the years, giving them a decent education.

She has also been able to build a three-bedroom self-contained house in Ho.

From the commissions she earned, she has been able to look after her children singlehandedly over the years, giving them a decent education

Daa Paulie, who speaks Ewe, English, a little Ga and a little Twi, is an active member of the Ho-Kpodzi E.P. Church, Ghana and a member of the church choir.

In the first quarter and second quarters of 2014, she was honoured with Silver Category for her high sales performance by the NLA.