Lotto Rwanda, the country’s national lottery has opened up a prize claiming account in Eco-Bank Rwanda. This is intended to facilitate the claiming of the cash prizes easily.

According to Johannes Lind, the Project Director for Tilia Games, the account in the bank is also to help winners seek for advice on how to make use of their cash prizes.

‘Many people are over whelmed by the huge sums of money they have won but without having a clear vision of how to spend it or invest wisely, the aim of our venture will have been defeated’, he explained during the awarding of last week’s winners at the Eco-Bank headquarters earlier this week.

Tilia Games is a shareholder in Lotto Rwanda alongside gaming technology provider Octavian and the Rwandan mobile network operator Rwandatel.

Lotto Rwanda is a Public-Private Partnership initiative owned by the government with shares to the tune of 40 percent and the private sector with 60 percent.

‘The account has a specific counter in the bank for handling the winners where they present their coupons for verification by the teller’, Lind explained. He said that more accounts are also expected to be opened up in other Eco-Bank branches.

’For example, the account will be installed at Kigali Business Centre (KBC) and City Plaza’.

Winners are drawn every week after purchase of a lottery ticket at Rwf.300. These are sold on the streets by authorised vendors with cellular handsets connected to GPRS technology provided by Rwandatel.

The National lottery was launched early this month by the Minister of Culture and Sports, Joseph Habineza. Last week, lucky winners were awarded the cash and material prizes.

This saw a young man aged 20 years, Zuberi Hakizimana, win Rwf.10million from the ‘Crazy Christmas’ draw, a festive lottery .

Crazy Sunday lottery draws are held every Sunday from 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm.

After less than a month of operation, the lottery model intends to increase on its operations in Rwanda within next year. It also plans to extend its operations to other African countries through the launching of Pan African Lottery.

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