Market Leaders and Traders Association of Nigeria (MLTA) has commended Dangote Cement for staging the “Bag of Goodies Season 2 Promo” during this period of COVID-19 pandemic.
President of the Association, Mr. Christopher Okpalla, who spoke in Lagos, described the promo as a higher version of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) that is worth emulating by other companies.
According to Okpalla, the promo is capable of tackling the issue of poverty in the lives of the winners.
“There is a serious need to discourage poverty in Nigeria. If people are poor, they will be forced to go into crime, and you never can tell who will be their victim in the long run. I want other prominent Nigerians to emulate Dangote and invest their wealth in the country, instead of taking it abroad to keep in foreign banks. The money that will be lost when they leave this world. This will help alleviate poverty from Nigeria,” he said.
Specifically, he commended the company for using the promo as a form of palliative to ameliorate the challenges of the COVID-19 on consumers of Dangote Cement.
Speaking further, he said “It is accepted to me because it is attached to the term palliative. It is good. If Dangote is going to work out on a long-lasting promo to improve the lives of 21 million citizens through various prizes won, for me, it is a welcome development and we will give him all the support.
“Again he should put the right structure in place, so as to capture the right people. It is a known fact that in Nigeria, such a programme can be hijacked by some individual for their own benefits, denying other Nigerians that are supposed to be captured.
Sometimes, those who are supposed to give out the goods might divert it. There is a need to put in measure to checkmate the promo, so as to maintain a near-perfect system. I will encourage other individuals with the same capacity to emulate this development put forward by Dangote. This is because whatever they have made is from the commonwealth of Nigeria, which is not evenly distributed,” he added.
National Secretary of Block Makers Association, Apostle I.I. Aina on his own, lauded Dangote Cement’s management for investing on its consumers through consumer promotion.
He said that the company has proved to be truly Nigerian company for always having the interest of the block makers at heart.
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He expressed the hope that block makers will form the bulk of the star prize winners in the season 2 promo.
Aina’s prayers came to pass as a block maker based in Lanlate, in Ibarapa East local government area of Oyo State, Ojediran Kayode Stephen, emerged the first N1 million winner in the “Spell Dangote and be a millionaire” promo.
He said he got the winning letters from among the 500 bags of cement, which he bought to make blocks for customers.
Apart from the N1million, Ojediran said that he also won several recharge cards and extra N2000 in the promo.
On what he would do with his winnings, he explained that he is going to invest the N1 million to expand his block making business.
He said, “I am very happy for becoming one of the first sets of people to win in the Dangote Cement Promo. I intend to use the money to expand my business. I am going to buy more bags of cement to produce more blocks.
“I thank Dangote Cement company for organizing this promo in this era of COVID-19 and I believe the money will go a long way to reduce the pain of the pandemic in the country”, he added.
Another lucky winner, the Managing Director of Afolabi Adefila Block Industry, said that he has been a user of Dangote Cement since the inception of his business, which he started several years ago.
According to him, he buys over 300 bags of Dangote Cement weekly for his block factory located in Lagos.
“I patronize only Dangote Cement. This money is timely, most especially during this era of COVID-19. Dangote has been doing a lot to ameliorate the challenges of COVID-19 on Nigeria. I am aware of what the company has been doing to reduce hardship in Nigeria. The promo is just an added effort to what Dangote has already done in terms of poverty alleviation”, he said.
