MTN Nigeria is bringing back a decade-old service through its new Lucky Jackpot campaign, reviving the offering with a promotional drive aimed at reconnecting customers with the service.

Lawal Michael Nasiru, popularly known as Nas Boi, beneficiary of the MTN lucky jackpot, Omada Emmanuel, and Chief Digital Officer, MTN Nigeria Aisha Mumuni

Reviving its Lucky Number service with bigger prizes, MTN Nigeria has paid out N100 million to 10 winners under the first season of its revamped Lucky Jackpot campaign, as the telecommunications company seeks to deepen customer engagement and bring inactive subscribers back to its network.

Speaking at the prize presentation held at MTN Nigeria’s headquarters in Lagos on Wednesday, the company’s Chief Digital Officer, Aisha Mumuni, said the decision to 

revamp the more than decade-old service was driven by the need to offer customers something simple, fun and family-friendly.

“We just thought, let’s revamp it and give our community of customers something to look forward to,” she said.

Mumuni said the initiative had also helped bring some inactive SIM cards back onto the network, as subscribers returned to participate in the draws.

She explained that participation was designed to be simple, requiring subscribers to text “WIN” to 4445, after which their MTN numbers would automatically be entered into the draw.

According to her, the winning numbers are generated through an automated process, with no human selection involved.

“It’s literally lucky,” she said.

She added that the company was already considering subsequent seasons, saying the first season had been “pretty engaging” and interactive.

Senior Manager, Digital Services Partner Management at MTN Nigeria, Eyitayo Amushan, said the company collaborated with Yellow Dots Africa to revive the service after reviewing its subscriber base and the prevailing economic situation.

He said the partnership focused on increasing the winnings and making the service more attractive to subscribers.

Amushan said participation had risen from about 240,000 at the start of the campaign to more than 1.4 million, although the company hopes to increase the figure further.

“With over 40 million active data subscribers and over 90 million subscribers on the network, 1.4 million playing today is just like we are scratching the surface,” he said.

Izuchukwu Lucky Uba Martins, Product Manager, Yellow Dots Africa, said the service’s simplicity was one of its major attractions, as subscribers only needed to send the keyword to the designated shortcode before waiting for the winning number.

The Lucky Jackpot campaign is scheduled to run for nine months, divided into three seasons of three months each.

Joshua Isiebo, Senior Manager, Platforms Management, MTN Nigeria, said the platform had provided an avenue for customers to participate and stand a chance of winning substantial prizes, adding that the testimonies from winners demonstrated its impact.

For Enweazu Blessing, a Lagos-based professional make-up artist and fashion stylist, one of those testimonies was now her own.

Blessing, who said she discovered Lucky Number through a testimonial on Instagram and had participated for a little over two months, said she was shocked when she received the call informing her that she had won N10 million.

“I was not expecting to win. I said it’s a lie. I’m not even joking, I screamed my lungs out,” she said.

She plans to put about half of the money into expanding her business, invest part of the remainder and support her mother and siblings.

The cheques were presented to the winners by Nigerian content creator and artist Lawal Michael Nasiru, popularly known as Nasboi.