Windhoek
The January debt disease as termed by many has now become a thing of the past for the seven lucky winners of three cars (Dankie Botswanas) and N$25 000 in cash from the Moola Mobile competition.
The competition ran in December last year and prizes were awarded last week Friday. The competition was aimed at people that are struggling to run their business or who are business minded and would like to pursue one.
The competition winners were dominated by females as three females from Okahandja and Windhoek scooped N$25 000 each but one male from Oshakati managed to get a share of the N$100 000 on offer.
The three cars were all won by females, with the youngest among them the 22-year-old Naomi Shikongo who said she would use the car to generate an income and to pay for her education.
The cars are valued at N$70 000.
“This competition was meant to empower people, so that the lucky ones can have a chance to sustain themselves by using the cash prizes and the cars to start up a small business or even to enhance what was already there,” said Uejaa Kazondunge, Moola Mobile’s head of marketing, sponsorships and promotion.
The winners were electronically chosen on a random basis, she says. “The competition has been running for the past six years and every year it changes as we look at what is essential to people in terms of what they can win and what impact it can have on the people that have won,” said Kazondunge.
She said that when they are selecting winners they don’t know “who is a male or who is female, until we contact them”.
Meanwhile the executive director of Moola Mobile Group, Martin Shipanga, said the company would soon embark on a process of trailing the winners to find out whether they are using the prizes for the intended purpose of uplifting their lives. “Despite that process, we still don’t have the right to control how they can use their prizes – instead we just try and encourage them to make a better life for themselves from such prizes and this is our way of fighting poverty,” said Shipanga.
The winners said they learnt about the competition through the different media, while some said they are regular players and they were happy that their determination and persistence had finally paid off.