Nwogu Ijeoma, a trader in Alaba international market, Lagos, and 1,015 customers across Nigeria emerged winners in the second quarterly draw of the DiamondXtra season 11 reward scheme powered by Access Bank Plc.
Speaking shortly after receiving her N1m prize money, Ijeoma, while expressing excitement at winning, told newsmen that she had been a customer of Access Bank over the years.
An obviously excited winner, she assured Nigerians that promo is real and urged all to partake in the initiative, recalling that when she “got a call from the bank, I did not even listen I hung up the phone. But when they called again, I decided to give them a listening ear only to discover I have won a million Naira. I am excited and I would encourage my friends and family members to bank with Access Bank so that they can partake in this initiative”.
Also speaking at the presentation ceremony, Head, Retail Product insight and capabilities, Access Bank Plc, Rob Giles, said the bank has kept its promise to ensure the initiative is sustained.
Giles revealed that over N5.4bn in prize money, even as efforts are ongoing to ensure that more Nigerians win every year, adding that “one the special thing about DiamondXtra season 11 is the difference we are making for people by giving rent allowance for a year and we had winners today who won in that category as well as education grant for five years, that is something that is really impressive in this season. We are also helping our youths get education which help makes more businesses grow.”
The product, he stressed, has been a success since its “launch in 2008 and you do not have to have a large amount to save. For every N5,000 you save, you get one entry into the prize draw and that entry could win you any category of our prizes”.
Corroborating him, Head, Retail Market and Analytics, Access Bank, Chioma Afe, explained that the motivation behind the DiamondXtra initiative was born out of the need to transform the lives of its customers.
“We have 31m customers across all our various products and for DiamondXtra, we have about 2.7 million customers and we want to ensure every single one of these customers have been impacted positively by this initiative in some way. We have also launched Diamondxtra on USSD *901# to make it easier for new customers to open accounts and for the existing customers to increase their deposits to grab more winning opportunities.
“The beauty about DiamondXtra is that today we see these winners, but in the draws that happen in the markets, we reward our customers with N10,000 to N50,000, because we realise that not anybody can be a millionaire but every kobo counts and I think after banking with us for such a long time, it would not be bad if we reward our customers. The motivation is that for every time we do this, we find that these monies are used to transform their lives. So we want to keep doing that”. She said.
A statement by Access Bank noted that DiamondXtra is an interest yielding hybrid account which allows deposit of both cash and third party cheques. Hybrid means a combination of both savings and current account features. The reward scheme has given away over N5bn in cash and household items to over 15,000 loyal customers over the last 10 years.