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Did Big Brother Naija Shortchange The Winner Of The Show With The Car Prize?
This year’s edition of Big Brother Naija tagged “Pepper Dem” has come and gone. A prize of N60million was at stake to be won. Mercy Eke – one of the participants – eventually emerged as the winner.
In keeping to their promise, the organiser of the Big Brother Nigeria reality show, MultiChoice Nigeria, presented Mercy with a cash prize of N30million, together with an SUV – an IVM G40, worth N25million. The SUV was presented to the winner on Monday at a well-publicized ceremony.
See the photo of the presentation below.
Sponsorship of Big Brother Naija
Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing (IVM) was one of the sponsors of the reality show. As a sponsor, you are either expected to support the show with either cash, service or a product. Clearly, IVM supported the show with either cash or/and with the car.
Technically, Multichoice, the organizer of the show, never paid for the SUV. They would have gotten it for free from Innoson.
Innoson IVM G40
Since the show ended, there have been vigorous conversations centred around the cost of the IVM G40 prize. It was the opinion of many Nigerians that the G40 was too pricey for a locally-made vehicle. Some suggested that many imported brand of SUVs costs a lot less.
Due to the furore generated by the price of the IVM G40 as made public by the organizer of the Big Brother Naija, we contacted Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing – the manufacturer of the vehicle – to determine the actual price of the vehicle. We were informed that the G40 sells for N21.3million. This is about N3.7million less than what Multichoice announced.
So, why did Multichoice advertise the car as costing N25million?
According to Ehijie, a car buff, Innoson probably sells its base model of the IVM G40 for N21.3 million. The base model of a car typically comes without some customizations or unique extra features.
Now the question is, even if the model of IVM G40 presented to Mercy Eke as the BBN prize was the upgraded model, what sort of upgrade was made on it that would cost N3.7million?
