The situation in Nigeria today is one that requires everyone – individuals, organisations and governments at all levels – to think unusually; what is now commonly referred to as thinking outside the box. The need to think differently has arisen because the challenge we face today as a nation, which is purely existential, requires solutions that could get the ship of state back on the right track to give the people hope of a better tomorrow, from the short to the long term.

President Bola Tinubu is racing against time, firing from all cylinders, to restore the hope of Nigerians in government to be able to lift them out of the state of hunger, misery and despondency that has literally ravaged the country. The various policies of the government are geared towards achieving this objective. But while the government tries in its ways to ameliorate the sufferings of Nigerians, it is important that all hands must be on deck to help salvage the situation in which we all are in.

It is against the background that I am delving into the current topical discourse on the need for a National Reward programme. I have read the contributions of Mr. Jones Udemba titled, ‘National Reward Programme: A Stitch in Time’ and Mr. Femi Lawal’s intervention titled, ‘Questions on the National Reward Programme’, both shared on influential print and online platforms.

I have also taken time to look at Chief Lai Labode, Chief Executive Officer of CashToken Rewards Africa’s interview on Arise Television, which was the genesis of the conversations.

From what is available in the public space, the programme is a novel scheme that gives instant cash rewards to consumers for every purchase they make across different businesses throughout the country, including goods and services. It rewards consumers for just making their routine purchases, no matter how insignificant they may be. Beyond the instant cash rewards, consumers stand a chance to win between N5, 000 and N100, 000,000 in the National Consumer Draw that holds every Friday.

In a nutshell, the programme has the potential to bring immense benefits to the three stakeholders that matter in the socio-economic life of the country, namely; Nigerian consumers, Nigerian businesses and the government. It has already been stated that for consumers, it puts money back in their pockets each time they make a purchase. For businesses, it brings higher yields through increased patronage. And for the government, the programme brings more money into its coffers in the form of an increase in revenue.

From what Labode said on Arise Television, the programme is going to be a Public Private Partnership (PPP). This would be in line with current efforts by governments at the federal and state levels to partner private-sector organisations to address some of the challenges faced by Nigerians.

The certainty of the benefit of the programme to Nigerian consumers lies in the fact that as long as they make purchases or meet the purchase thresholds of participating businesses, they will be gifted cash tokens. These thresholds will be made known by the participating companies so consumers are aware of them before making purchases. This is unlike the regular promotions in which thousands of consumers spend money on the purchase of goods and services, with only a few lucky people winning the prizes at stake.

The reward programme promises an increase in return on investment for businesses through increased patronage. It has the potential to create hundreds of thousands of jobs, as more hands will be required to effectively implement it as well as partnering organisations that would need more hands to meet production as demand grows.

The National Reward Programme will provide extensive generation of data to aid widening of the tax net and, in turn, generate fresh revenue for the government through contribution of a good portion of the revenue it generates.

To address some of the concerns raised by Mr. Femi Lawal on sustainability of the programme, we know that similar reward programmes already exist in Lagos and Ondo states, known as Eko Token and Sunshine Token, respectively. By scaling up to the national level, the programme will be extended to other parts of the country to accommodate more Nigerian consumers and businesses.

Any possible fear of lack of sustainability of the reward programme is addressed by the fact that as long as consumers make purchases, they are sure to get instant cash rewards; businesses will continue to grow and this new revenue source for the government will remain alive.
*Princewill wrote from Port Harcourt