Nigeria’s largest bank and most valuable brand, Access Bank Plc has rewarded a lucky customer with a brand-new SUV as part of its star prize rewards in the ongoing 16th Season of the DiamondXtra rewarding scheme.
The official car presentation event which took place at the bank’s Head Office in Lagos saw Onyeamechi Uchenna Modestus, an Owerri-based businessman who runs DiamondXtra Account with the Bank, full of happiness, surprise, and gratitude as he was handed the key of a brand-new GAC GS3 SUV.
The DiamondXtra savings and reward account has been delivering mouth-watering prizes to its loyal customers, culminating in this much-anticipated quarterly car giveaway. DiamondXtra is a special hybrid interest-yielding account, which allows customers to deposit cash and third-party cheques. The season 16 promo has seen Access Bank take customer engagement to new heights with prizes totaling N200 million, including three SUVs to be won quarterly, and other mouthwatering rewards.
The lucky winner of the brand-new SUV, Onyemechi, expressed immense gratitude as he said: I didn’t expect this to come my way. I thought it was a prank. I couldn’t believe it when I got a call from Access Bank that I won a car from DiamondXtra that I should come to their Head Office in Lagos. I was like – I am not interested. I was thinking it’s one of those scammers, that will ask you to send bank details. At a point, I said I was not interested at all, but thank God the lady who called did not give up – she kept calling to convince me that she was calling from Access Bank.
“She asked me to come down to Lagos for an official handover and now, I am here and it’s real. I found out that it is real. I am glad and happy about it. This car would ease my movement and give me comfort and also boost my business, even my personal status. DiamondXtra Account is real. So if you don’t have a DiamondXtra account, you are missing a lot and missing a great chance to win this type of prize. When the marketer came to me then, I didn’t have any idea I would be the one to win the car, I just opened the account and now I am a winner.”
While congratulating the lucky winner, Robert Giles, Senior Retail Advisor, Retail Banking, Access Bank Plc, expressed the bank’s commitment to rewarding its customers: “DiamondXtra has been rewarding customers now since 2008, and customers have been rewarded with all kinds of prizes, sometimes cash prizes. But our customers also told us that they want much more than just cash. They want life-changing experiences. And I think we all know the cost and difficulty of transport today in the country.
“So this year, we’ve been able to change the reward program to reward 3 winners with a brand new SUV, and this is the 1st SUV from the DiamondXtra programme that we’re giving out this year. The bank is doing this because we believe that it’s important to create a culture of savings. We all know that if we save, we can start to either absorb shocks that are not anticipated and reach us or better still, to help us better ourselves through different generations. So we’re trying to encourage the transfer of intergenerational wealth through savings.
“But often people say that when you start, you’re saving small when you begin. The reward doesn’t seem that apparent. And so we’re making savings more interesting with life-changing prizes that will allow customers every month to enter into a prize draw for every 5,000 naira they have, they get one entry into a prize draw that can win cash prizes, so they can win 1 million naira, 500,000 naira, or lots of smaller prizes down to 20,000 naira. Or then life-changing experiences like winning the car, and then other things that are part of the DiamondXtra draw are more to help you enrich yourself and grow. We have now over 5 million customers saving with DiamondXtra alone, of the over 60 million customers in Access Bank, and I think that shows the impact that it’s having on people’s lives.
“And after 16 years, people are voting with their feet and trusting DiamondXtra Firstly, as a safe place to keep their money. Secondly, as a place that they can use to transact. It’s not only a savings account. This is a hybrid account that customers can open by simply dialing *901*5#, and you can do it from anywhere with USSD, anywhere in the country you can open the account. We look forward to being here to celebrate the 20th year, the 25th year, and many more years of success’’, he said.
Commenting on the impact of the rewarding scheme, Njideka Esomeju, Group Head, Consumer Banking, Access Bank explained that DiamondXtra has impacted millions of lives and is properly monitored by the National Lottery Commission: “For this year, we did a survey and asked our existing customer base, our over 5 million Diamondxtra customer base: What do you people want us to do this year? So whatever reward we give is based on what our customers want. We have 2 more cars left. We started the Q1, which ended in June. We have another one for this quarter and then the Q4. And then we have regional draws where we give 1 million naira across the regions in the country” she said.
During the unveiling at Alaba International Market in Lagos earlier this year, 48 customers walked away with cash prizes ranging from N20,000 to N200,000, as 40 customers won N20,000 each, five customers won N50,000, two customers won N100,000, and one customer won N200,000. In the ongoing season, Access Bank has conducted on-site draws across various regions in the country, rewarding numerous customers.
The DiamondXtra is an interest-yielding hybrid account that combines the features of both savings and current accounts. Over the last 15 years, the DiamondXtra reward scheme has given away over N6.5 billion in cash and household items to over 15,000 loyal customers. To qualify for the DiamondXtra Season 16, which is open to both new and existing customers, new customers are required to open a DiamondXtra savings account with just N5,000 by dialling *901*5# or walking into one of the Access Bank branches to open the account. The more multiples of N5,000 both new and existing customers save, the higher their chances of winning at the monthly, quarterly, and annual draws.
About Access Bank
Access Bank is a leading financial institution in Nigeria, committed to providing innovative banking solutions and empowering its customers. With a strong focus on customer satisfaction and community development, Access Bank continues to set new benchmarks in the banking industry.