Adkan Promo: Infinity Homes Writes Name in Gold
Mortgage
By Dan Ede
Perhaps, the hardest thing to achieve is fame. Not because it takes so long, but because most of the time it involves doing the unusual. Besides, the road to fame is always rough and thorny. But the end is invariably satisfaction and joy.
For Infinity Homes (Infinity Trust Savings and Loans limited), the sole promoters of 'Adkan 'Win A Home Promo', the success of the first raffle draw of the promo which took place on August 14, 2004, was all it needed to launch itself into a household name and mortgage banker to beat in the country. That success has come and the stardom has been attained.
But it was not an easy one. Ask Mr. Eniola Olakunri, the Managing Director of Infinity Homes and chairman of the promo organising committee. "It was quite challenging because first of all we have to know that a lot of Nigerians, until they finally saw or heard that somebody actually won, that was when they started taking the whole thing seriously.
"...It was quite interesting because it took a lot: we held a series of meetings, I had to travel all over the country, we had road shows, we had television interviews and people were phoning in to ask about payment and all that", Olakunri told THISDAY after presenting the key of the 3-bedroom duplex to the first winner of the raffle draw last week.
From relative obscurantism, Infinity Homes came into limelight in June this year with the Adkan promo. In a country where about half of the population lack their own homes, every eye was staring at the mortgage banker that was beckoning to Nigerians to come and win a home with just a ticket of N2000. Some pooh pooed at the offer, but the adventurers decided to give it a trial.
One such adventurer was a middle-aged woman called Mrs. Bola Ode Martins. She bought only one ticket; and that ticket happened to be the one picked by the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Federal Capital, who was standing in for his minister. And behold, she became the first winner of the Adkan Win A Home Promo, thereby becoming the instant owner of a N12. 5 million worth of 3-bedroom terrace duplex.
"I thought it was one of those things, that it was not real. But I said 'okay, let me just buy it. I just bought one ticket", she told THISDAY.
And that was how Adkan Services Nigeria Limited and Infinity Homes 'conspired' to make her a landlady in Abuja.
Today, she encourages others to try their luck. "I encourage other people to try their luck. They might be as lucky as I am. What God has done for me; because I believe that it was just God; otherwise, why should it be my ticket that was picked. So, I encourage other people; it is for real", she said.
Olakunri also hopes that other Nigerians could take a queue from this first draw and participate in future draws; and that other Nigerian companies would embrace this gesture.
Though he acknowledged that some sales of tickets were recorded, he maintained that what was realised from the sales could not cover one-third of the money spent on publicity alone, which THISDAY gathered was in the region of N4 million. "But as I keep telling journalists, the essence is not to recover the money for the houses, but the desire to give back to society", he maintained.
He had said on the occasion of the draw that "Adkan Services and Infinity Homes are not in business solely to make profit. The companies operate within the Nigerian environment and are conscious of their responsibilities as good corporate citizens. For us, those smiles we would record on the faces of the lucky winners are weightier than gold and are much more important than the cost of the houses.
"It is billed to be a life-transforming experience for the fortunate Nigerians who would be landlords/landladies in the capital city of the most populous black nation of the world".
Continuing he said: "Permit me to state that Infinity Homes struck an alliance with Adkan Services Nigeria Limited in a strategic move aimed at improving the lot of Nigerians, particularly in the areas of housing delivery.
"Adkan Services, a foremost indigenous construction company, has been involved in various construction projects close to twenty years. The company commissioned a 351 housing units at Gwarimpa in July last year; and the construction of the entire units took only 18 months. This is a feat yet to be surpassed by any Nigerian construction company involved in housing".
Incidentally, the 10 terrace duplexes to be given aware in the promo are located in this Gwarimpa estate of Adkan, popularly known as 'Abuja Model City'.
Mr. Olakunri had wished that these houses were won by the downtrodden, people who otherwise would not be able to afford their own homes. But he did not quite realize this wish in the first draw. "She did not meet my expectation. I wish her well; she was ordained to win. But what I had said earlier was that if I had my way, I would prefer that people down the line won -carpenters, bricklayers, etc. Like I said, I was expecting tears, but the woman didn't cry. She was happy, but it wasn't that shocking to her".
But the promo chairman took solace in the fact that the lottery took a federal character as the three major ethnic groupings in the country were represented on the winners' board.
The overall winner is a Yoruba woman; the winner of the first consolation prize, an Hausa man; the winner of the second consolation prize, an Igbo lady; and the winner of the third consolation prize, a Yoruba man.
The first consolation prize attracted an LG refrigerator; the second, a Honda generator; and the third, a sharp television set.
The FCT Minister, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, who was represented by his permanent secretary, savoured the honour done him by being the one to pick the winning ticket. He equally recalled that destiny had placed on his shoulders the responsibility of commissioning the Abuja Model City, on behalf of the vice president, as his first official duty in July last year. He thanked the management and staff of Adkan, the associated bank (Infinity Homes) and all those who have contributed to housing delivery in the Federal Capital Territory.
Having said that, he appealed to financial institutions and private developers to join hands with government in building more houses for the ever increasing population of the FCT.
He also disclosed that he had directed the relevant department of his ministry to commence activities aimed at tarring the road to Adkan's Sun City estate.
By the schedule, another round of ticket sale must have commenced; and the promo chairman revealed that people were already calling him to find out where they would buy tickets.
From indications, managing success by Infinity Homes may prove as challenging as attaining it in the first. With the expected bandwagon effect that the success of the first draw would engender, the problem now could be how to ensure that whoever needs tickets will get as many as he wants to buy without stress.
Interestingly, Mr. Olakunri has promised to reorganise ticket sale, to make it more effective and to reach out to more people, having realised that the previous arrangement did not quite work out, as some sales outlets did not actually believe in the reality of the promo, hence they did not go all out to market the tickets.
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