The rip-off called ‘promo’
Almost every company doing business in Nigeria is doing one promo or the other. Check it out: telecom operators, banks, manufacturers of goods and so on are running promos. Their doing this would not cause any worry if they play by the rules. But what they do is far from what the law says. GSM […]
Almost every company doing business in Nigeria is doing one promo or the other. Check it out: telecom operators, banks, manufacturers of goods and so on are running promos. Their doing this would not cause any worry if they play by the rules. But what they do is far from what the law says.
GSM service providers for instance have been encouraging their subscribers to buy more airtime as that would make them win cars and extra airtime. One of them recently promised 500 cars. Who won those cars remains a mystery up till now. What is particularly annoying about these service providers’ thing is that they don’t care whether one is interested in their so-called promos or not. Even if one is tired and in bed in the late hours of the night, they would not mind buzzing ones phone with promo messages. These massages do truly draw my ire. Only yesterday night, I got something that read thus: “Thank your star! Na only one choice you get to win tonight’s cash from…Just text Win to 555 now to get your chance! Costs N100/sms.” I believe many would be responding to this kind of thing hoping they would easily become millionaires. But we scarcely know those who have won big in these much-talked-about promos. I only see on television and on pages of newspapers some people who have won millions of naira in promos.
In Europe and America, lottery generates huge funds that are used to execute big projects many are proud of. In fact, many governments have used lottery in tax stead as a way of raising money to execute projects. Gigantic dreams like the Great Wall of China, the Yale University, Columbia University and Harvard’s University came to fruition because they were midwifed by money raised through genuine and well thought-out lotteries. Only few years ago, over $3 billion was generated from Georgia Lottery for scholarships. It is said that over 80 percent of the people there benefited from this.
But here in Nigeria, lottery means picking few persons, parading them as winners and deceiving the general public. This must stop! Lottery must move away from mere showing faces on television. Let it become like the lotteries in Europe and elsewhere.
Here, we have the National Lottery and Regulatory Commission (NLRC). The commission by its enabling Act (2005) is empowered to identify how much a company doing promo would rein in. It is accordingly expected to hold 20 per cent of what is raised through the promo in trust for government even as 50 per cent of the money must go back to those who participate in the promo.
Section 7 (c) of the National Lottery Act says, “[the commission shall] promote transparency, propriety and integrity in the operation of national lottery;” and (d) maintains that the commission shall “ensure the protection of interests of players, stakeholders and the public in the national lottery.” And section 17 adds, “…the operation of the business of a national lottery or any lottery, by whatever name called, shall be subject to a licence granted by the president upon recommendation by the commission and compliance with the provisions of this Act or any regulations made pursuant thereto.”
All this is not done in our case. Nobody knows how much these promoters get. Nobody knows how much they give back to the public if at all they do.
Let those doing lottery like banks: Union Bank, First Bank, Diamond Bank; GSM service providers—MTN, Etisalat, Glo; manufacturers like Indomie makers; and producers of Who Wants to be a Millionaire explain how much they have raised including those who have won with their full names and verifiable addresses. We want transparency and sincerity in these promos.
Many of us have misgivings because the whole thing is blurred. Until that time when regulatory authorities would sanitise the lottery industry and make it transparent, many of us would be unwilling to play. And the time for them to do that is now. We have had too much rip off and thievery in the name of promos in this country.
NLRC must brace itself up and squarely tackle all the service providers and manufacturers of goods who think they would wake up one morning and start taking money from the unsuspecting public in the guise of promos. NLRC must stamp its authority in this regard and be prepared to invoke the relevant law to take its course. The people must on their part be prepared to ask questions. Before we enter any game, we should ask to be told how much is projected to be raised, how many are likely to win and what the processes are. Promoters must equally be made to tender evidence of their compliance with the laid down rules regarding how to do lottery. It is the duty of NLRC to ensure that these companies get official seal from it (NLRC) before being allowed to operate. The time of blindly accepting promos is over. Where a company feels it is above the law and attempts to do unapproved lottery, it should be blacklisted and made to face the law. The telecom providers claim that they are regulated by the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC). But NCC gives them certificates to offer communication, Not to do lottery. The moment they veer into lottery they are doing something else and should be made to play by the rule(s).
Abdulwaheed writes from Lagos