A sports betting company in Africa, betPawa, on Sunday said it had sealed a strategic intervention partnership with the Lagos State Government in the education sector as part of measures to raise standard of education in the country.
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The Chief Executive Officer of BetPawa Nigeria, Mr Segun Somefun, made the disclosure in Lagos at the presentation of N1.8 million cheque to a 32-year old civil servant from Akwa Ibom , Mr Amos Utibe.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Utibe won the jackpot after placing a bet of N100 on betPawa Nigeria.
Somefun said: “We believe strongly in what we call Corporate Social Responsibility. We are focused on education, we have discovered that there is a need for private sector intervention in the education system in the country.
“’We have got approval from Lagos State Government and we are starting with a school first in Mushin area of the state.
“We will be involved in learning intervention whereby we will be sending people to the school to go and teach the students and secondly, we are returning what is called Prize Giving Day back to school.
“The third thing we are doing in that space is that we are giving scholarships to three best pupils of that school in their common entrance examination.’’
According to him, they are also creating jobs and internship for people to learn business and be self employed.
He added that betPawa was a licensed sports betting company in Africa owned by an international group of widely experienced investors with decades of participation in global online betting.
Somefun said the company was used to paying winners of its bet immediately and that it was usually paid not less than seven times a day, adding that “we allow people to bet small and win big.”
He said betPawa started in Nigeria a year ago after obtaining license from the Lagos State Lotteries Board, noting that the company had been in Kenya and Zambia among others, where the company had been firmly rooted.
“We feel we can replicate the success story in Nigeria, especially in Lagos which has the fifth largest economy in Africa, we are trying to use technology to drive behavioural change through online betting,” he said.
Somefun lamented that people still go to shops to place a bet when they could easily do it online using their mobile phones in the comfort of their homes.
“We are taking advantage of the liberalisation of the telecoms industry.
“We are the only sport bet company using airtime. Our platform is such that data use is minimal. You can use as low as N1 to bet on our platform. Betting is the stock in trade of the middle class,” he said.
A representative of the Lagos State Lotteries Board, Mr Remi Iwayemi, said the gaming industry was one of the biggest income generating sector in Lagos as it was seriously thriving in the state.
An elated Utibe, said he felt great winning the N1.8 million jackpot, describing it as a dream come true.
He said he only placed a bet of N100 which made him a millionaire, adding that making the bet online was very simple.
NAN reports that the cash prize was presented to Utibe by Oluwatosin Ajibade, popularly known as Mr Eazi, who is the brand ambassador of the firm. (NAN)
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