" ITREALMS: ‘Who wants to be a millionaire’ gives out N5m

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

‘Who wants to be a millionaire’ gives out N5m

Remmy Nweke

The MTN Nigeria sponsored television show, “Who wants to be a millionaire?” has given out over N5 million since its relaunch earlier this month in Lagos.

The organizers of the show being hosted by Mr. Frank Edoho, said that every Friday winners emerge with over N10 million maximum offered for grab along with consolation prizes, courtesy, MTN Nigeria Communications.

The repackaged TV show in its first edition afterwards on Friday, 4th August, saw the two hot seat occupants leaving with N45,000 and N120,000 even when both had ample opportunity to get bigger and better prizes, of up to maximum of N10 Million.

On the same day, as in all the subsequent editions of the show, N500, 000 and N400, 000 went to 30 lucky winners comprising of 10 viewers from the studio and 20 viewers who watched from the comfort of their homes respectively.

This format, organizers said, will remain for the next 11 months, ensuring that 30 lucky Nigerians will smile home with the sum of N900, 000 weekly by providing answers to questions asked by the presenter, in addition to the prize money to be won by any lucky Nigerian who sits on the hot seat which has been pegged at a whopping N10 Million.

A winner in one of the series, Mr. Kelechi Amadi, an Aba, Abia state-based student who turned to business to make ends meet because of lack of funds to further his education and who has won the sum of N20,000 twice in the home play segment of the richer and bigger TV quiz show, said that the money has helped in no small way to revive his hitherto waning urge for higher education.

“Participating in ‘Who Wants to be a Millionnaire?’ was really a tonic to me. It provided me with a creditable avenue to showcase my knowledge and beyond all that, the monetary reward I got from it was channeled towards the purchase of JAMB examination forms for me and my siblings, thereby taking a huge burden off me and my parents” he said.

In his comment, Managing Director of Ultima Nigeria Limited, the franchise holders for the T.V programme in Nigeria, Mr. Femi Ayeni, said that more and more Nigerians stand the chance of winning life- changing sums of money in the programme as his firm and MTN have decided to ensure that the questions asked in the programme and the mode of entry remain simplified.

This, according to him, is because they are aware that the real excitement is in people winning and there is of no value putting N10 Million at stake and making the questions unanswerable.

“The simplicity of the programme starts with the simplicity of the entry process. To participate in the programme, all a viewer has to do is to place a call or send a text to a preminum rated short code (132). If the subscriber is able to correctly answer the question that is immediately texted to him or her, he or she will be invited to the studio and will stand a chance to sit on the hot seat and win N10 Million. The subscriber also stands the chance of winning an extra N50,000 for just being in the studio, just like 20 other Nigerians who stand the chance of winning N20,000 just by watching the programme on T.V”, he said.

Corroborated Mr. Ayeni, the Senior Manager, Master Brand, MTN Nigeria, Mr. Kola Oyeyemi, noted that the telco believes in Nigeria and the ability of Nigerians to win the juicy prize monies on offer for the betterment of the larger society.

“We are involved in this programme because we believe in Nigeria. There is a ratio of 10 to 1 for every single Nigerian who is rich. Our belief is that if a person wins N10 Million, the multiplier effect will be great as he will touch many lives. Our hope is to build smart millionaires through the programme and we hope the emergence of the first set of winners is a prelude to that”, he stated.

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