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Business Reporter
A LUCKY Chiredzi woman, Dudzai Lovemary Baloyi, walked away with $100 000 in the ZimGold ‘millionaire promotion’. She was presented with her early Christmas cheque at the ZimGold offices in Harare on Monday.

More than 200 shoppers participated in the first phase of the promotion, which began early last month and ends on November 14, said ZimGold in an update.

The promotion period has since been extended to November 30 due to the overwhelming response with various prizes lined up, said the company.

Under the promotion, one lucky winner will walk away with a grand prize of one million dollars in the local currency.

“We are approaching the festive season and it’s time to spread the love by reaching out to those who need us. We are trying to put smiles on our stakeholders in various ways.

“Through the ‘ZimGold givers’, we are trying to assist charity organisations that are making a difference in society,” said Pure Oils head of marketing and public relations, Lesley Gibbons.

“With the ZimGold millionaire promotion, we just want to cheer our customers who have supported us through thick and thin by giving them back what they have invested in us.

“The ZimGold millionaire promotion is a life-changing opportunity to the winners especially to the lucky winner who will take the one million dollars grand prize to become a millionaire.”

To enter the promotion, a customer should buy a box of ZimGold cooking oil and look for a scratch card in the box, find a pin entry number, which they then send to the WhatsApp number on the scratch card.

Apart from offering groceries, the company is also stretching a helping hand to the education sector by offering scholarships in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

The STEM scholarships saw beneficiaries — Lovejoy Gushungo and Sosten Magweva getting a lifetime opportunity to pursue master’s studies at the Institute of Technology Palakkad (IIT) in India.

The two are currently in India, studying Mechanical Engineering and Geotechnical Engineering, respectively. This year, Pure Oils will award scholarships to two beneficiaries who will be announced soon.

The company was among those that offered relief during Covid-19 lockdowns by giving out cooking oil, soaps, and blankets to all the frontline workers who were working during the coronavirus-induced lockdown.

The donated goods were handed over to President Mnangagwa at a ceremony held at the State House. Last year, ZimGold givers assisted survivors of Cyclone Idai in Chimanimani.

Pure Oil Industries was incorporated in Zimbabwe in 2012 initially as a joint venture between ETG/Vamara and Parrogate Zimbabwe.

The first commercial production started in 2013. National Foods then bought an equity stake in the company in 2016. The business is now an established processor of edible oil, primarily soya bean, cotton, palm, and sunflower and canola oil with the leading brand being “ZimGold”.

The company also does oil seed extraction with a capacity to crush soya beans, cotton seeds and sunflower seeds. It also produces soya meal, cotton cake and sunflower cake for the stock feed industry.

To support the local farmers, ZimGold has embarked on a backward integration strategy, which led to the birth of its contract farming scheme in 2016. The company has expanded its product portfolio to include “Zimbrite” laundry soap, “Purola” canola cooking oil, “ZimGold” margarine and “Oleo” bakers’ fat.