UEMOA Common Mass kicks off in Abidjan with record jackpot
Yadio village, Agboville, will benefit from a 75 million CFA UEMOA funding to construct a primary school.
Ivory Coast.- The Union Economique et Monétaire Ouest-Africaine (UEMOA) common mass, a joint racing event featuring eight member countries, commenced its 22nd edition on Monday, May 5, 2025, in Abidjan.
The UEMOA Mass is a racing event co-organised by national lotteries and urban pari-mutuel betting (PMU) companies across the union’s eight member states. The partners combine resources to offer a bigger prize pool in the region.
This year’s editionwas primarily overseen by the National Lottery of Côte d’Ivoire (LONACI) and proved to be memorable with a special 100 million FCFA jackpot, which was up for grabs on Thursday, May 8, 2025.
Dramane Coulibaly, director general of LONACI and president of the African Lotteries Association, noted that the common mass reflects the shared vision of WAEMU’s urban lottery and pari-mutuel companies to build a robust and unified socio-economic community in their collective region.
Coulibaly said: “The benefits of the UEMOA common mass are individual and collective. On the occasion of each edition, our companies jointly increase their redistribution capacity to bettors by constituting a mass to be shared representing 60% of the net turnover achieved by each of them on the selected race. Each bettor in the community, therefore, has the same chances of winning larger winnings.”
Coulibaly added that the UEOMA common mass contributes to community development in its host nation through various initiatives. For the 2025 edition, the lotteries will invest 75 million CFA Francs (€114,336) in building a six-classroom primary school in Yadio village, Agboville department.
Earlier editions have funded projects in other areas, such as healthcare and infrastructure. For instance, in 2020, the event, held in Dakar, generated 50 million CFA (€76,224), which was donated to a health research institution in Senegal.
The 22nd UEMOA common mass, currently underway in Côte d’Ivoire’s economic city, will conclude on May 9.
Benin will host the next UEMOA common mass in 2026.
