Mr. Allen Cheng, the Managing Director of eGame Solution as well as the Chief Executive Officer of Malawi National Lottery (MNL), was interviewed by The Daily Times on 19th of October while he is staying in Malawi to oversee the pre-launch operations for the official launch of Malawi National Lottery before Christmas. Mr. Cheng was pleased to tell Malawian media and citizens that the 6/36 Lotto and Scratch N’ Win games, which will be rolled out on 19 December, is about gaming excitement and dreams!

Business Guest – CEO of National Lottery Group, the Daily Times
Lottery is a game that is not understood by many people in Malawi. However, National Lottery Group has brought this exciting game to Malawians and the company’s Chief Executive Officer Allen Cheng explains more about it to Business Times reporter Caroline Kandiero. Excerpts:

What is the Malawi National Lottery bringing to Malawi?
Everyone has dreams and wishes we strongly desire. Going by our slogan “Live Your Dreams”, Malawi National Lottery will create memorable experiences for many Malawians. By playing Lotto 6/36 and Scratch N’ Win games, people will realize their dreams and live in a completely different life because we are giving out huge sums of money in prizes. We will provide everyone with the most innovative, value for money experiences. In a nutshell, we will create a highest level of players’ enjoyment and social betterment.

Let’s talk of figures. How much are you injecting into the business?
We are in Phase One till the launch day and in this phase we have already invested US$ 6 million (about K1 billion) approximately. There will be a further investment in millions of dollars. So, you can see that we mean serious business.

Malawians are eagerly waiting for the day when you will roll out. When should they expect to see your products and what products are you bringing into the market?
We are launching in December this year before Christmas. This has been deliberately designed to give the winners an early Christmas gift. In terms of products, we will start with two games: Scratch N’ Win which is the Instant Game (IG) or Scratch Card and 6/36 Lotto Game.

You have an office here in Blantyre, where else in the country are you opening other offices?
The Blantyre office is the head office. We will also have regional offices in Lilongwe in the centre and Mzuzu in the north.

Every business has challenges. Have you faced any since you entered the Malawi market?
So far I should say not really. I am happy to report that Malawians are very excited. We receive many queries about lottery. It indicates that people trust in us, and we hope when we roll out, participation will be massive throughout Malawi. However, the main challenge may be civic education. We still have to share with Malawians how to play the games and change their lives. But as far as we are concerned, we have not faced any big difficulty as we are overcoming challenges from time to time.

We have seen your company advertising different positions in the press. How many job opportunities are you creating for Malawians?
True, we are recruiting staff members at the moment. We have vacancies for various positions from management to operations level. We are looking at creating over 3,000 jobs for Malawians directly and indirectly.

Which parts of Malawi are you going to be operating?
This is a national company therefore it will cover all the 28 districts. We will have an extensive retail network with over 2,000 lottery point-of-sale terminals throughout Malawi. We are all over and everybody in Malawi will get us. In short, we will only be a walking distance away from people.