Dangote cement’s ‘bag of goodies’ promo, not a scam

Nigeria’s leading cement manufacturer, Dangote Cement Plc has said that the rate at which consumers are winning valuable prizes in its on-going national consumer promotion tagged ‘bag of goodies’ is not a gimmick but a means of giving back to the loyal consumers of its cement products.
Chairman, Dangote Cement Plc, Aliko Dangote, stated this in Port Harcourt, Rivers State at a ceremony to reward winners in the promo where, a 35-year old Engineer and businessman, Tochukwu Anthony from Enugu State won the star Prize of a brand new GACs car, while Amadi Richard and Julius Ilabeshi won flat screen LED TV sets a piece.
Perhaps, the most interesting of all is that of a 70-year old moin-moin seller, Alhaja Nimota Adetoro who won a saloon car in Ikirun and god her car presented to her in Osogbo, Osun State capital amid pomp and trills.
Dangote who was represented by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and a non-executive member of the company’s Board of directors, Dorathy Ufot in Port Harcourt and Benin stated that the presentation events were a proof to doubting Thomas’s that the promo is not a scam, pointing out that the company value its customers; which explains why it would not make any promise that it won’t fulfil.
He said: “We are giving out 43 cars nation-wide and other prizes. We are here today to say thank you for your contribution to the growth of our company, Dangote Cement PLC. We value our customers that is why we have brought this promo to Port Harcourt. We value everybody in our value chain system (distributors, wholesalers and retailers) and this our own way of giving back to our consumers.
“On behalf of Alhalji Aliko Dangote, the board of Dangote Cement, the management staff and the entire of the company, we are here to say a big thank you to you to all. The national promo is for real. It is not a scam, it is not a gimmick and not a 419 thing.
“It is for real and we have made promises which we have been keeping across the country.  We have several prizes and gifts to give out, starting from the star prize of the car, we have tricycles, TV sets, Refrigerator and other smaller gifts.”
However, in Osogbo, the Dangote Cement Group Managing Director, Engr. Joseph Makoju who presented the Car and Television sets to the winners said “Dangote Cement is reliable, we are trustworthy. If you use our product you can go home and sleep. We really appreciate you because without our customers, consumers, retailers, distributors there will be no Dangote Cement”.
He said: “This is the car key to our star winner. We are for real. This is proof that we give life changing prizes. If you continue to buy Dangote Cement, the next car may very well be yours. This evidence is made public to everybody. Continue to buy Dangote Cement and keep scratching and you may be as lucky as Mr. Anthony.”
In her remarks, Marketing Director, Funmi Sanni stated that aside the quality product the company offers, it realizes the need to give competitive pricing to maintain the loyalty of growing customers so that they are lured into buying any other brand of cement.
She said: “Those in the value chain are the reason the company is bagging a minimum of 800, 000 bags daily. You are very important to us and the reason for this promo tagged bag of goodies targeted at our consumers so that we can say thank in a special way. In every bag there is a scratch card and this scratch card has won somebody a car today and other winners as well.”
In a chat with newsmen, Regional Director (South South), Dangote Cement, George Okoro, said we believe in appreciating our customers for their dedication and their loyalty across all members of the channel. We have a scheme running for distributors. We have another scheme running for retailers. We also have this scheme running for consumers.
He said the promo will run for three months, from July 1^st to September 30, adding that one can just buy a bag of cement to win; naming the various prizes  in the scratch card as cars, TV sets, refrigerators, celebration parks, tricycles and cash sums; even as he called on the public to discountenance those saying the promo is a scam.
Speaking with newsmen separately, the star prize winners commended the management of Dangote Cement for the worthy gesture of rewarding consumers of its products saying all the prizes on offer add economic value.
Alhaja Adetoro explained that the winning was a pleasant surprise to her and that Dangote Cement has done what no one has ever dreamt of pointing out that “the whole arrangement to me is like a dream. That I will be riding a new car at the stage of my life is quite unbelievable”.
The Port Harcourt winner, Tochukwu Anthony expressed happiness and thanked Dangote for the reward; saying the prize was found in one of the cement bags he bought where he is putting up a property.
Anthony said: “My workers have called several times to inform me of N1000 scratch cards which I usually give them, until they saw this one and inform me. That is how I won.”