By Prince Osuagwu
BEFORE the wounding up of Etisalat’s 9jillions game show promo at the weekend, the argument had been whether a telecommunications company would actually doll out to a subscriber, a whopping one million US dollars ($1m), which translates to about one hundred and Fifty million naira (N150m), in Nigeria’s currency.

Besides whether it was possible or not, another hot debate was how the winner would react. Many said the winner would faint. Others anticipated the winner would be dumb for a very traumatising moments before recovering.

But the two surprises which  actually escaped every permutations, before Kizito Egeonu, a 400 level Medical student of Unijos emerged winner of the $1m grand prize money Friday, were that a  20 year-old, would eventually become the winner. The other was the momentary madness that enveloped the young lad as the veil of the electronic lucky machine gave way on his number 18, to reveal a hidden treasure of $1 million.

The game show had been going on with the thirty five lucky finalists punching the lucky machines in turns until it remained just two people, Kizito and another young lady. At this moment, even the hall itself became tensed and heartbeats were drumming hard.

However, immediately his number 18 was punched and it revealed he was the winner, Kizito who has been quiet all through broke into the crowd, frantically running into God-Knows -where, and had to take some time before the tough looking security guards positioned everywhere in the Oniru private estate venue of the event, could track and pin him down.

One couldn’t have expected anything less because the young lad later confirmed that he was earlier experiencing very confused emotions and couldn’t tell whether he was drifting into coma or experiencing some hypertension.

But the true story is that Kizito, the young undergraduate, 4th in a family of seven with average background, is today N150 million richer. Added with the N2.2 million he and his three other siblings won in the Kaduna region of the promo, it would be truly arguable if this family would still remain an average family and this is where Etisalat, a young telecommunications company that is just one year old in Nigeria’s competitive telecoms market, could be said to have made history.

Besides the $1m grand prize, the company also gave out about N35 million to 35 other subscribers who were lucky to emerge for the grand draws.

The emergence of the million dollar winner was the peak of the promo which Etisalat began in June. The promo had produced over 40 millionaires at the regional game shows held in eight cities across the nation.  Over four thousand subscribers were also rewarded with high end phones in the “Win two phones per hour for 90 days” segment of the promotion.

Elated Mr. Egeonu, a member of family team of four, who emerged winner of the star prize money, slugged it out with nine other teams which also got one million Naira (N1m) each in the grand finale of the game show. Egeonu’s team qualified for the final at the Kaduna regional champions.

Speaking about the promo from inception, Etisalat CEO, Mr. Steven Evans said that not many people believed that Etisalat would give out such an amount of money, the first in the history of promotions in Nigeria and indeed Africa.

According to him, “When the promo started, many cast doubts over whether we would indeed give away one million dollars. The answer is standing right here in front of you and today Kizito is living proof that Etisalat keeps its promise all the time.

A lot of Nigerians have also chosen to keep faith with us in the one year of our operations; our subscriber base is now 2million and growing fast, our brand is recognisable all over Nigeria, subscribers on our network have had the quality of their lives improved through the various cash prizes that we gave out during this long promo culminating today in the giving away of one million dollars, the biggest cash prize in not just Nigeria but Africa.”

Etisalat Chief Marketing officer explained that the journey to the grand finale began with the purchase of an Etisalat SIM for new customers and recharge of credit worth N200 or N500 for both new and existing customers; subscribers then sent an SMS to the short code, 5000 with their location and full names.

Lucky customers subsequently either won a high end phone and or an opportunity to play at the regional game show.  The regional finalists from the game shows as well as subscribers who spend a minimum of one thousand naira monthly and enter for the promo participated in the grand finale.

As the promo wound up, Etisalat said it had given out a whopping N300 million to subscribers out of which benefited 258 people in cash, made 56 millionaires and may have turned the world of Kizito Egeonu and his family some 60 degrees around.

When confronted by this reporter on what Etisalat stood to gain with the promo, Etisalat CEO, Mr Steve Eveans simply said “Etisalat has always prided itself as a company that places its subscribers first and strives to constantly empower its people in positive, exciting ways. We also believe in creating generational wealth” he added.