From: Laide Raheem, Abeokuta
Head of Consumer Banking of Diamond Bank Plc., Mrs. Aisha Ahmad, has explained why the bank has been rewarding his teeming customers.
According to her, the bank, which had in the last nine years, showered N5.4 billion as rewards on consumers, was to encourage them to cultivate the habit of saving.
Ahmad gave this disclosure, in Abeokuta, Ogun State, in South West of Nigeria, at the Southwest Region Draw of Season Nine of the Diamond Xtra promo.
The event saw 10 customers winning cash prizes ranging between N500,000 to N1m, while a brand new car was won as the star prize.
Speaking further, Mrs. Ahmad, reiterated Nigerians must be encouraged to always cultivate the habit of saving, urging government at all levels to always cultivate the habit of saving, not only for the rainy days but to also enable them execute various projects.
She said: “It is more than just a bonanza, what we are trying to do is that we are encouraging people to save. We are encouraging individuals, households, businesses that saving inherently has its own value. Saving helps people to achieve their goals, it enables them to be organised with their lives and to help them to achieve that dream that they are looking at.
“It is not about rewarding people with money, it is about encouraging them to save. If they save little out of what they have, one day they will be encouraged to win.
“We must continue to save and encourage people to cultivate the habit of saving, no matter the state of the economy, we must live well and this can be done through saving, that is why we must encourage ourselves to continue to save.
“Even in the Nigeria economy, a pool of savings is what is available for investment, so if you are a country that is not used to saving, there is no way we can invest in infrastructure that we are all talking about. We want good roads, we want electricity and the rest, there has to be a stock of investment money to do that and that comes from savings.
“In August, we are going to be giving out N1m ever work day. There are 23 work days in August and every single day, one person will emerge a winner of N1m. We are not just giving out money but we are trying to encourage lasting saving culture”.
The winner of the brand new car, Mrs. Grace Adegbite, commended the management of the bank for the transparency of the promo saying as a trader, she never expected she could win the star prize.