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Mobile telephony company Orange Cameroun, kept thousands of Buea denizens spellbound with a mega concert that was held on the eve of the Mount Cameroon Race of Hope.
With Orange Cameroun as its official sponsor, the 50th edition of the race witnessed an unprecedented population turnout on Saturday, February 25.
The mega concert featured several Cameroonian musicians, including traditional music singers Maxy Manor and Mola Ilonge, as well as afrobeat hitmaker KO-C.
The concert held just outside the Molyko Omnisport Stadium rallied thousands of Buea denizens who were held spellbound for over six hours.
A lucky user of Orange Money service left the event with FCFA 1 million while two other lucky winners went home with flat-screen televisions.
“The tipping point of that concert was one person, an ordinary person, was going to go home with one million francs. The only thing that we needed from that person was that your Orange number or your MTN number should have an Orange Money account,” said Gisela Musi Lum, Project Management Officer for Orange Cameroun.
“What we realised was that the population really, really loved it and it’s very important to listen to the population. It was full till about 10 pm, so we saw that the population loved what was done,” she added.
Orange’s concert also provided the platform for the Miss Mount Cameroon Race contest, a competition that featured 16 beauty queens who competed for a prize of FCFA 350,000.
“Orange Cameroun supported the Federation to make sure that their initiatives had the platform to go through. The first initiative was the Miss Mountain Race. We brought it back, revamped it, and gave it the stage where everybody could see. We didn’t want it to be enclosed in an environment where people would not be able to see. It was positive. It was good, and I really applaud the ladies that won,” Gisela Musi Lum said.
This was the first time Orange was sponsoring the Mount Cameroon Race of Hope, and it made all the difference from previous editions, remarked Emmanuel Motombi Mbome, President of the Cameroon Athletics Federation.
“I want to thank all our partners and especially our main sponsor Orange Cameroun, who have all come in force to give this 50th anniversary the grandeur it deserves and make it one with a difference,” Motombi said in a speech.
Mrs. Gisela Musi said the company opted to sponsor the event as part of its commitment to bring customers closer to what matters.
She said Mount Cameroon Race was just one of many community initiatives Orange Cameroun will be sponsoring this year.
“Trust me Orange is here to stay. Before Mount Cameroon, Orange had shown its interest to the people of the Southwest and Cameroon as a whole – that it’s all about proximity; it’s all about learning what matters to all of us Cameroonians, that is, preserving the richness of our culture. So Orange is here to stay and Orange will continuously be here. We have more community projects in the pipeline,” she said.
Part of Orange’s activities at the Mount Cameroon Race was a 1,000-person sports walk that took participants from Molyko Omnisport Stadium to the Buea Reunification Square and back.
“We also gave a stage for people that wanted to march, people that wanted to walk. Another thing that was requested was those that wanted to participate in the race but were not necessarily athletes. What are they going to do? So there was a 1,000-person walk. We provided them with materials to make their walk easy, giving them at least a T-shirt that keeps them in a governed environment,” the Orange Project Management Officer said.
