“DiamondXtra is one of the best things that has ever happened to banking in Nigeria and it has transformed the lives of Nigerians who have been patronising this special savings and reward scheme by Access Bank, unveiled by Diamond Bank in 2008”, Abimbola Julius, a former banker and financial analyst said while responding to questions on a saving promo that has impacted lives of its customers.
Julius, who is currently to said he was motivated to open a DiamondXtra account because of the positive impressions on its customers, said nothing has been so impactful as the special savings and promo scheme.
Introduced in July 2008, DiamondXtra Savings Promo had impacted the lives of its loyal customers beyond expression. DiamondXtra now has 2.4 million customers as over 26,393 customers have been rewarded with more than N6.35 billion since its inception.
DiamondXtra is an interest-yielding hybrid account that allows the deposit of both cash and third-party cheques. Hybrid means a combination of both savings and current account features.
Since 2008, the special reward scheme has expanded the scope of its operations and rewards after listening to its customers on what they want as improvement and this is shown in the innovations and improvements that have been introduced into a scheme that is currently in its 15th edition.
The scheme can now boast of star prizes like brand new cars, a one-year shopping allowance of N100,000 per month, a one-year monthly allowance of N100,000 per month, loyalty reward, Salary4Life, rent for a year, educational grant, business grant, digital marketing training and other cash prizes.
The breakdown shows that the reward scheme rewards 10 customers with N1million each in the monthly draws, while the rewards for the quarterly draw include: Salary4Life which is N100,000 every month for 20 years, education allowance of N100,000 every month for five years, rent for a year which worth N1 million, N1 million for six lucky winners, N500,000 for 15 lucky winners, N100,000 for 45 lucky winners, N50,000 for 300 lucky winners, N20,000 for 300 lucky winners, N10,000 for 300 lucky winners and loyalty prizes of N20,000 for 45 lucky winners.
To be part of the scheme, Victor Etuokwu, Deputy Managing Director, Access Bank said:
- “Existing customers were advised to increase their balance with at least N5,000 till the draw date, while new customers should open a DiamondXtra account with a minimum of N5,000 and increase their balance with a minimum of N5,000 before the draw date.
- “To join the winning train, all a customer needs to do is to save up, if the customer is already a DiamondXtra customer, or open a DiamondXtra account with just N5,000 and save multiples of N5,000 to increase chances of winning.”
Introducing DiamondXtra USSD
In fulfilment of its strategic objective to become Africa’s gateway to the world, one of Nigeria’s leading retail banks, Access Bank Plc launched and opened up its USSD channel (*901#) to all Nigerians to enable the instant opening of DiamondXtra accounts from mobile devices.
The DiamondXtra USSD channel option (*901#) allows customers, and potential customers, conveniently open a DiamondXtra account, confirm the number of tickets they have in a particular draw, and also find out the date for the draws from their mobile devices.
Introducing the USSD channel account opening option, Victor Etuokwu, Executive Director, Retail Banking, said,
- “Our business is all about our customers as our success can be directly attributed to their success.
- “We have helped millions of people save with DiamondXtra and have rewarded thousands over the last 10 years, with this year being the eleventh edition.
- “To encourage more people to save, we have digitized the scheme to accommodate customers who are not able, for one reason or another, to go to the branch to open a DiamondXtra account. New customers can simply dial *901#, follow the prompts to open a DiamondXtra account and fund with a minimum of N5,000 to be one of our lucky winners”.
In a bid to encourage digital transactions and savings, leading retail bank Access Bank is rewarding customers, who open DiamondXtra Digital accounts, with cash prizes.
The campaign which ran from April 3 to April 30, 2023, was designed to deliver on its promise to repay Nigerians for their loyalty and continued savings with the country’s largest financial institution.
Speaking to newsmen at the Access Bank head office in Lagos, Group Head of Consumer Banking, Njideka Esomeju stressed that customers remain a top priority.
- “We are all about providing customer-focused solutions to serve the needs of our customers in real-time, encouraging them to imbibe the savings culture to be able to achieve their dreams.
- “We have also continued to evolve and offer various digital services and propositions that our customers would need and find most useful at this time, hence the DiamondXtra Digital,” Esomeju said.
The DiamondXtra Digital campaign is open to new and existing account holders and takes only two minutes to open.
Customers are expected to fund their accounts with a minimum of N2000 or more and perform a minimum of five transactions or more using the AccessMore app, the USSD code *901#, or debit cards.
The first 200 customers to open an account will receive N1000 cashback in 24 hours, while the first 10 customers, by the number of digital transactions, will be profiled for N100,000 business grants each, among other cash prizes.
DiamondXtra Digital is one of the innovative solutions to serve the needs of citizens across the nation and recognize loyalty.
In this digital era, customers need value-added propositions to save them time, and cost, guarantee the security of transactions as well as transact conveniently from anywhere and at any time, Esomeju added.
Past winners
One of the winners of Salary4life, Ajokwu Ifeanyi, an Onitsha-based businessman said the prize is a turnaround in his life.
He said:
- “I am a businessman and I must say that the salary for life (100k every month) has impacted my income. As I have been paying my parents’ monthly salary from it. I am grateful to Access Bank”.
- Mr. Richard Anyanwu, Season 10 winner of Education Grant for 5 years said, “I am very grateful to Access Bank as it came at a time when I needed it the most and it helped take the burden of paying my children’s school fees away from me”.
- “I just got a call that I qualified for the Education Grant due to the fact I have an account with the bank, I was shocked as I never expected it and it helped put smiles on my children’s faces as the issue of school fees payment no longer became a problem for me.
One of the first beneficiaries of the Salary-for-Life, Mrs Nnena Chukwu said: “We were asked to open an account and deposit N5,000 which I did and I never knew I would win and did not still believe it when they called me, I thought it was a scam until it became a reality.
- “They have been crediting my account with N100,000 every month since I won in 2019 and it has really helped me a lot and I am forever grateful to Access Bank for making me smile”.
Season 12 winner, Mrs Adeola Muliat Adewusi won N1 million and used the prize money to boost her hairdressing business.
She said:
- “I lost my husband a few months before I won N1 million and at that time, my landlord wanted to evict my family over unpaid rent. Then I got a call that I won, I didn’t believe it until I got to the office and it became real to me.
- “I was able to pay my house rent and also use some of the prize money to boost my business, Access Bank brought smiles to my face when I almost lost all hope”.
- Also another winner of the Rent-for-a-year, Akitiyan Yerimah, who is based in Kaduna State and has been a customer for just three years disclosed, “It wasn’t stressful as I was not able to make it to Lagos to redeem my prize but I was able to liaise with the branch office here in Kaduna and they credited my account.
- “I got to know of the account from one of the Access Bank staff and I keyed into it and I kept saving regularly and I was called a winner due to my saving attitude.
- “A lot of people think that things like this are scams but it’s real, even I thought it was a scam at first but as one of the beneficiaries, I believe that a lot of people can start saving too even if it’s a little, they can still have a chance to win”.
I have open diamond extra account over 7 years ago now and I have not won a pin.
Please make unah remember me oo