By Princewill Ekwujuru
The adage, teach a man to fish and he will feed himself forever re- enacted itself in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital when MTN Communications in its on-going 10thyear anniversary reward scheme  tagged: N1 billion mega reward, empowered 10 more persons in its second reward scheme.

Aside these, the reward  goes beyond mere reward, it implicates further the consciousness of the brand on the need to reward loyalty and empower its consumers, as a mark of respect for their patronage.

Aside the reward, there’s been other marketing activities; like the music concert that transversed many cities in Nigeria where local musicians had entertained MTN and non MTN subscribers, which invariably created further  top of the mind visibility for the MTN brand.

Where the brand intends to reward consumers with 10 million in every 10 days is a scheme  deployed by the company to expand the brand’s equity, and to  increase  its market share and to also consolidate on its market position.

The continuous engagement of consumers by the brand has raised its stepping point with which the company  had remained on the top of the leadership  ladder in the telecoms table, yet, one may tend to ask, What impact has the marketing activities had on the brand? And what has the monetary reward in N1 billion reward scheme had on the life of the winners.

However, the key reason for MTN to reward loyal consumers was to make a difference in people’s lives. From the winnings one can see the smile and explosion of happiness of the winners.

The above  questions and more was what . Bola Akingbade, Chief Marketing Officer, MTN, represented by Mr. Lawrence Akharume, Regional Marketing Manager, South West, summarised when he reiterated MTN’s  commitment  to enriching the lives of its subscribers at every given opportunity.

“Our customers mean a lot to us, that why we roll out different life enriching packages and schemes aimed at improving their welfare.

Aside from the 10 lucky big winners who went home with N10 million each, 100 lucky customers went home with N100, 000 each in addition to other instant cash prizes.

On hand to present cheques to the winners was the representative of the Oyo State Governor and Commissioner for Information & Orientation, Mr. Bosun Oladele who expressed the gratitude of the Oyo State Government to MTN for changing the fortunes of the lucky winners, who have moved up to the millionaires club just for registering their SIMs.

Speaking on behalf of the winners, Mr. Olufemi Isaac from Ondo town in Ondo State was full of gratitude to MTN for the life-changing reward. According to him, gFor the past three years, I have been saving my meagre salary as a secondary school teacher for a proposed overseas study programme.

This has amounted to nothing, and as a result, I have not been able to pull through. But today, MTN has brought that dream to life by this mega reward, he said.