Nume Ekeghe and Chiamaka Ozulumba write on how Access Bank through its hybrid savings account ‘DiamondXtra’ has been impacting on thousands of families over the past 12 years through its array of winnings and its consistency in rewarding its customers
In the past 12 Seasons, many Nigerians smiled to the banks with prizes ranging from Salary-For-Life to Education Grants and Cash prizes gotten through the DiamondXtra Customer Savings Scheme.
The DiamondXtra savings scheme, an interest yielding hybrid account which allows deposits of both cash and third-party cheques was first launched in 2008 and has been meaningfully impacting lives through rewarding its loyal customers with cash and gift items.
While speaking to THISDAY, 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 faces as the issue of school fees payment, no longer became a problem for me.
“The Grant would end in April 2022 and I will be forever grateful to Access Bank for what they did for me”.
One of the first beneficiaries of the Salary-for-Life, Mrs Nnena Chukwu was full of joy, according to her, “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”.
According to Victor Etuokwu, the Executive Director, Personal Banking, “ DiamondXtra has running every year since inception 12 years ago and has seen over 22,000 customers rewarded with over N6 billion given away in cash and gift items”.
He made known that despite being a reward scheme, entry is quite simple as existing customers only need to have a minimum of N5,000 in their DiamondXtra account monthly while new customers can open a DiamondXtra account with a minimum balance of N5,000 and grow the account.
For every N5,000, a customer deposits in their account they would get a ticket in the draws, so for every N5,000 saved the higher the customer’s chance of winning at the draws.
During the monthly draws, about 10 bank customers have the chance to win N1 Million each while for the quarterly draws one lucky customer would win the Salaryforlife grand price of N100,000 every month for 20 years while other winners would receive the Education Grant for 5 years, Rent for a year and cash consolidation prices ranging from N50,000-N1 million.
Etuokwu further disclosed, “The DiamondXtra reward scheme is one of the ways, Access Bank creates value and meets the needs of its loyal customers.
“ We have been rewarding and changing the lives of our esteemed customers for 12 years and are excited to launch the 13th season of this amazing scheme”.
“This scheme is one of the most successful deposit products in the country as it not only encourages customers to save their money, gain interest on their savings but also rewards them as they keep saving with so many life transforming prizes and with launch of this new season, the reward scheme has been revitalized and reloaded to create winners everyday”.
As seen in the case of Season 12 winner, Mrs Adeola Muliat Adewusi who 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 the 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 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 me I had 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”.
She was full of praises for Access Bank, adding that the reward has “gone a long way in solving some financial issues” and she urged Nigerians to open a DiamondXtra account and save because the promo is real and would also improve people’s savings culture.
On his part, Senior Banking Advisor Retail, Mr Robert Giles disclosed that, “From inception DiamondXtra was designed by our customers themselves. They told us that the return on savings was small, yet the reason to save was to transform and improve lives.
Since the initial launch, we have shared over Five Billion of prize money through daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly draws. We have given out Education Grants, Business Grants and Salary-for-Life.
“Season 13 was designed by over 600,000 customers who were surveyed to inform them of the changes they want to see. Our customers said they want to keep Salary-for-Life, Business Grant and Free Rent. They also told us to add lots of smaller prizes so everybody has a chance to win. And finally, they asked us to bring it closer to home. and that’s why this year we are taking DiamondXtra into every neighbourhood so that people can see the difference and share with friends”.
Meanwhile, the Group Head Consumer Banking, Adaeze Umeh said, “DiamondXtra has evolved into a big family and now has about 2.5 Million customers and everyone is qualified to win provided they’d have a minimum balance of N5,000 and multiple of N5,000 in their account”.
She added that the bank has positively impacted over 22,000 families with several prizes and Season 13 was going to be an interesting one.
Customers will be awarded every quarter while customers of the bank and new prospective customers would have access through opening a DiamondXtra account.
Umeh said, that for Season 13 over 2,000 customers would now be part of the consolation prizes every quarter with special attention given to women; for every draw we have, about 10 of the winners will be women.
One person would have the opportunity of winning a shopping allowance of N100,000 for the next 12 months and nine others will get N300,000 each. 14 people will win about N1 Million each to pay their rents because there is something for everyone. The one customer advocated for is the opportunity to get the Business Grant and to make it closer to home.
According to her, “we have our clusters across all our 600 branches so all the associations, markets, groups of journalists can actually come together and open a DiamondXtra account with a minimum of N5,000 and participate in the draw”.
After more than a decade of putting smiles on the faces of its customers with over N6 Billion won in cash and gift items monthly and quarterly by almost 20,000 customers and although the merger between Access and Diamond Banks raised concerns; Access Bank through DiamondXtra has been positively impacting the lives of its customers with the reward scheme.
Though the scheme underwent repositioning in 2013 to be able to cater to a wider audience, it still stands as the longest reward scheme with over Two Million customers.
And with over 12 years of rewarding loyal customers under its belt, DiamondXtra now in its 13th Season has taken the notch higher through the inclusion in the scheme’s benefits a Family Health Insurance Cover for a year worth N1.6 million; an increase in the number of winners for the Rent-for-a-year prize to 21 per quarterly draw and a N1 Million Business Grant.
