Dubai: A Dubai-based Indian construction worker has won Dh1,000,000 and plans to return home to build a small mall in his hometown.
Nanhaku Yadav, a mason who earns Dh1,300 a month, was on Wednesday named the third millionaire of Al Ansari Rewards Summer Promotion 2016, which was held by Al Ansari Exchange, a UAE-based foreign exchange and worldwide money transfer company.
Yadav, 36, has been working at Dubai construction sites since his arrival in 2012. Before this, he worked as a mason in Muscat, Oman.
Nanhaku Yadav receives his ceremonial cheque from Rashid Ali Al Ansari, general manager, Al Ansari Exchange. Yadav is the third millionaire of Al Ansari Rewards Summer Promotion. Courtesy: Al Ansari Exchange
The father-of-three, who is from Ghazipur district in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, said he also plans to shift his children to a “good city school” in Varanasi city as the schools in his area are “not so good”.
“That’s what my children asked me when I called them and told them I won. My wife refused to believe me even though I kept insisting it’s true. She said ‘if you had really won so much, you would be coming home’. I’m going home soon after finishing all my formalities here,” Yadav told Gulf News on Wednesday.
“I want to build a shopping complex, like a small mall, that will stock everything that people need. That will be good for everybody because we don’t have anything like that in my place.”
Dh1 million is worth around Rs18.2 million.
Yadav’s life took a huge turn after he received an Al Ansari raffle coupon following his remittance of Dh1,116 to India. “I always send money home through Al Ansari and I’ve filled out coupons before. I wasn’t expecting to win and couldn’t believe I won,” he said.
Around two weeks ago, Yadav said he had got a call from “serious-sounding people” saying they wanted to meet him as part of a survey.
“Even when they told me they would be talking to me at the Al Ansari branch where I had sent the remittance from, it still didn’t click. I thought maybe it’s some event. They broke the news to me at the branch but I was having difficulty believing what was going on. People around me started congratulating me enthusiastically, and that’s when it started sinking in.”
On Wednesday, Yadav was declared the newest millionaire of the promotion at a ceremony at Dusit Thani Hotel in Dubai. The promotion had run from June 1 to July 31.
Rashed Ali Al Ansari, general manager, Al Ansari Exchange, said: “Every year, we add a new winner to the list of Al Ansari Exchange Millionaires and observe how their lives change as a result. This event has become a widely anticipated one among a large segment of our customer base and this motivates us to continue with the millionaire promotion every year.”
The ceremony also included the distribution of Dh100,000 cash prizes to 22 winners from different nationalities.
