By Lucky Fiakpa
Customers of the bank are looking forward with bated breath as another draw date for its SavingsXtra Promo comes up July 10 this year. Lucky Fiakpa writes that every customer believe that anyone can emerge the winner of the N50 million star prize which has heighten the anxiety

Edozie of Diamond Bank

Anxiety seems to have taken a better part    of Diamond Bank’s customers as they    await the next draw of the Diamond Bank’s SavingsXtra Promo christened “The Big Win”. The draw which comes up on July 10, 2009 will have a lucky winner going home with a cheque of N50 million as the star prize. This surely is the biggest prize to be won by anyone in the various banks promos in the country and it is real.

The draws tagged ‘mother of all draws’ are held in each half of the year. The first half year draw was held on January 26, 2009 and had Mr. Umaru James Umbugadu, a villager from the sleeping rural area of Sabon Dale; a community dominated by pockets of mud houses and scanty farm lands and about 13 kilometers from the small town of Lafia, as the star prize winner.

There were traces of disbelief in Umbugadu’s voice when the bank called him up immediately after the draw to inform him that he was the winner of the star prize. Interestingly, Umbugadu never heard of the promo or deliberately worked towards emerging a winner. It is this scenario that has created anxiety in the minds of the banks customers across the country as some were seen talking last week that anyone could be the star prize winner.

Umbugadu said when he got the call from Lagos that he has won N50 million in the SavingsXtra promotion, he thought it was some con game. “Can this news be true? This has never happened to anyone I know before. I have not heard of the SavingsXtra promotion before the good news was announced to me. That was why when the lady that called me from Lagos told me that I won N50 million, I did not believe her even though I heard some people clapping hands from the background.

“Later that afternoon, the bank’s branch in Lafia called me and it was one of the account officers I know. It was after my conversation with her that it began to ring bell that this might be true,” he said.

“We are celebrating Umaru Ombugadu today as the winner of N50 million. The good thing is that you could be the next winner!” the Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Diamond Bank Plc, Mr. Emeka Onwuka, said during the star prize presentation ceremony.

Indeed, it could be anybody and the public seems to know this very well as new accounts are opened daily in the numerous branches of the bank across the country. “It is gratifying to note that the promo has helped inculcate the savings culture in more Nigerians. Our records show that over 25,000 new accounts are opened every month and we believe this is a positive sign which portends a bright future for the Nigerian economy,” Onwuka said.

The account opening procedures are quite simple. All existing Savings and Diamond Integrated savings Account (DISA) customers automatically qualify for the draws as long as they maintain a minimum account balance of N10,000 between the 28th of every preceding month and the 10th of the new month. Every additional N10,000 increases the customer’s chance of winning again and again.

Qualifications
To qualify for the monthly national draws, existing DISA account holders as well as regular savings account holders only need to maintain a minimum deposit of N10,000 on the qualification date through the draw date to gain one chance of wining. No documentation is required. New customers, however, will be required to open a DISA or a regular savings account, and by maintaining the qualifying balance will qualify for the draws.

In addition, customers can qualify for successive monthly draws provided they retain a balance of at least N10,000 on the qualification date each month. For customers who are able to save more than N10,000 the chances of winning increases as they will receive an extra chance for every multiple of N10,000 in their account.

The number of chances to win in the major quarterly draws also increases as the lowest balance in the preceding two months will be counted as well. For the quarterly and half yearly draws, customers are encouraged to maintain the qualifying balance over the period and multiply their chances in the process.

Savingsxtra is Diamond Bank’s reward scheme for savings account customers who operate either a Diamond Integrated savings Account (DISA) or a basic Diamond Savings account.

The prize draw is an additional benefit of owning a savings account with Diamond Bank as all previous features, including interests; terms and conditions of the existing accounts     remain     unchanged. The new reward system expresses Diamond Bank’s commitment to enhancing the life style of its customers and the Bank’s resolve to rewarding customer loyalty. The bank has consistently rolled out creative and innovative products and services with positive effects on customer experience.

KPMG Supervision
The promotion is supervised by world renowned auditors – KPMG who has given kudos to the transparency of the draw process, assuring that every customer that qualifies enters the draw. Commenting on the draws so far, Mr. John Anyanwu, an IT Advisory officer of KPMG, affirmed that the draws were well organized, transparent and in line with the laid down criteria governing the exercise. According to him, “customers who are eligible to partake in this draws were included and we can assure everybody that all valid e-tickets had an equal chance of emerging as a winner.”

Speaking further he explained that every account holder who had a minimum amount of N10,000 in their accounts before the cut date receives an e-ticket which qualifies the customer for the draw. All eligible or valid e-tickets in the bank’s database have equal chances of winning during draw. Mr. Anyanwu stated that Diamond Bank has successfully and consistently organised several series of draws following the best practices in the industry.

Other Winners

Shock and bewilderment charaterised the mood of Mr. Roland Osagie, a Madrid, Spain based customer of Diamond Bank Plc, who could not control his tears when he was handed over the keys to a brand new 2009 model of Toyota Camry. Mr. Osagie won the Car prize in Diamond Bank’s SavingsXtra January draws.

Even long after Roland had driven the car home from Diamond Bank’s Isolo branch, he was yet to come to terms with the reality of driving a brand new car without the usual mantra of hard work and dedication.

Since the launch of Diamond SavingsXtra in July 2008, a total of 105 winners have emerged, including seven new millionaires – one winner each of N10 million and N50 million.

Another four have won Toyota Yaris cars, while Abdullahi Adamu, a Prison Warden won a staggering star prize of N10 million and a staff of Sheraton Hotel, Lagos, Samuel Zougle also won a Toyota Camry. Besides the winners of a Toyota brand of Cars, and the cash prizes, 12 other customers have won prizes including LCD television sets, Air conditioners and power generators sets.

The idea behind the Savingsxtra promo is to encourage Nigerians to develop a culture of saving for the rainy day which could also be used for investments. “It is the only way we can secure our future. What one can achieve with money well saved cannot be overemphasized. This promotion is all about appreciating our customers and also saying thank you to all of them for their loyalty. We would like to use this opportunity to assure all our customers that this campaign has come to stay,” the Regional Manager, South East, Mr. Charles Nkata, told the audience during one of the draws session.