National Reward Program: A Stitch in Time

By Jones Udemba

These are not the best of times for Nigerians. For Individuals, organizations and businesses, it has probably been challenging. Despite the current difficulties, many Nigerians continue to demonstrate resilience, resourcefulness, and a determination to overcome these challenges.

Addressing these challenges will require comprehensive efforts from both the government and private sector. The current administration of President Bola Tinubu has already started on a good note with reforms to unlock growth and maximize opportunities.

Collaborative efforts between the government and the private sector are often seen as crucial for sustainable development, economic growth, and societal advancement in countries like Nigeria. These collaborative efforts, along with strategic initiatives can pave the way for a brighter future for Nigeria and its people.

A recent conversation by Chief Lai Labode, CEO of CashToken Rewards Africa, on Arise Television on the strategic importance of National Rewards programme caught my attention and I decided to dig deeper on this discourse and the initiative. I will be the first to admit the trust deficit that exist between the government and its people and will tread with caution until the full implementation of the initiative, which I hope will happen soon.

However, listening through the conversation, I am optimistic of the far reaching benefit of the initiative to the Federal Government, Businesses and Consumers. Already the governments of Ondo and Lagos have keyed into similar initiatives on a subnational level by introducing Reward programmes – Eko Token Sunshine Token.

It has been successful so far with many lives transformed and testimonials abound. It would be interesting to see the National Rewards program play out on the national level and experience the inherent benefits it brings on a much larger scale. 

So far what we know is that the program is coming as a policy of the Federal Government, through the National Lottery Regulatory Commission and in partnership with CashToken Rewards Africa, a Nigerian RewardTech company which pioneered instant cash rewards for consumers five years ago.

This policy is a unique national reward system that is designed to build an unprecedented tripod relationship involving the government, businesses in the country and all Nigerian consumers in a win-win situation that would benefit businesses, consumers and the government.

It is a marriage of enterprise and social inclusion that is going to help grow businesses and, by extension, the nation’s economy, bring about wealth re-distribution through cash reward for every routine purchase made by consumers and widen the tax net to put more money into government coffers for the much needed development of the critical sectors of the national life.

The uniqueness of this program lies in the fact that it is not the run-of-the-mill sales promotion in which consumers are expected to purchase a product or service to stand a chance of winning various one-off prizes that may range from cash to vehicles, houses, household items, expense-paid trips, etc, usually after a raffle draw that may produce a handful of winners from hundreds of thousands of participants. It is a reward system like no other; one in which every business in Nigeria can key in, and is designed to reward consumers by directly putting money in their hands as a result of business patronage.

The benefits of the National Reward Program are quite enormous, and as a matter of fact, too tempting to ignore, as it affects the members of the tripartite relationship, namely, businesses, consumers and the government, positively. It gives consumers instant and potentially life changing cash rewards for every purchase they make across different businesses and services, which are automatically registered in their reward wallets linked to all businesses.

Shedding more light on the programme, Chief Labode stated that beyond the instant cash rewards, consumers will receive tickets that qualify them for the weekly National Consumer Draw in which they stand a chance to win between N5000 and N100 million.

It is estimated that the program would put an annual income of between N2.6 trillion and N5.2 trillion in the hands of Nigerian consumers – for doing nothing other than engaging in their normal, day-to-day purchases. The program is not a charity, nor is it a form of gambling, as a consumer must make purchases and meet reward thresholds of participating businesses.

The reward program would redefine consumer loyalty through greater patronage of a product that changes the lives of consumers. This increase in patronage, if replicated by hundreds of thousands of other consumers across the country, is bound to lead to an exponential growth of the business whose product enjoys such patronage. With increase in business fortunes comes the possibility of paying more tax to the government. 

The National Reward Program is also poised to open a new stream of an estimated revenue of between N568 billion to N1.2 trillion annually for the Federal Government, through contribution of a portion of the revenue. This is in addition to creating about 500, 000 jobs annually through a structure that would have agencies and strategic partners in all the 774,000 local government areas in the country.

At successful implementation, the program is going to bring about an unprecedented public emotional equity for the government.  Putting cash directly in the hands of consumers in a way that benefits the entire economy is a strategic direction the government hopes and should make to drive growth and I hope it will seize the opportunity to fully implement this program.

A few years ago, Nigerians were rated as the happiest people on earth. It was a survey many found quite paradoxical because it was difficult to understand how people who were economically challenged could be the happiest people on the planet. Now, the National Reward Program has the potential to make that assessment correct, if not in its entirety, at least through a significant increase in the National Happiness Index.

.Udemba lives in Lagos