Business
Winner Lauds Bank’s Customer Reward Initiative
Diamond Bank Plc has been applauded for developing a reward scheme aimed at showing appreciation to its numerous customers for their unalloyed loyalty to the brand.
Miss Habiba Mona Salisu, winner of the cash prize of N50 million in the second half year Diamond Savings-xtra Draw, stated this while responding to the news of her emergence as the winner of the highest ever prize money won on a single draw in the country.
“Words alone cannot express my profound gratitude to God and Diamond Bank for this fabulous customer reward scheme.
It is something I never expected and the mind boggling amount involved is something I had never dreamt of less owning it,” she said.
According to her, that was the first time she has ever won any draw related competition, attributing her emergence to the “unforeseen hand of God.” “I will not say I am lucky. I will not say I worked hard for it. I will not also say that I deserve it. It is simply the handiwork of God and I am delighted with it,” She said.
Miss Habiba a 23 year old 100 level under graduate of the University of Maiduguri, Bornu State and a customer of Diamond Bank Maiduguri, Shehu Laminu way branch, becomes the second person to win the biggest reward even of N50 million in the Diamond Savings-xtra draw.
According to her, she opened the account with Diamond Bank in April 2009 and expressed her excitement over the Bank’s gesture of giving back to the society through the savings-xtra draw scheme.
“Truly, from this development, I now appreciate in clearer terms the virtues of savings culture the bank is trying to imbibe on Nigerians. If I did not open a savings account, definitely, I would not have been in the race for this N50 million. As it is unbelievable, it is equally unprecedented. But I can tell you from my little conversation with the bank, it is genuine.”
Miss Habiba further stated that many people have been calling and visiting her since the news, broke to know if it is true and her plans for the future adding that even her father, retired civil servant who resides in Kogi state was dumbfounded when she broke the good news to him.
Meanwhile, also in the draw, twenty-six others emerged winners of various prizes, including Mr. Ezealisiji Christian, a customer to Dei-Dei Abuja, Building Materials Market, who won a brand new Toyota Camry car 2009 model. Amazing, all the winners qualified by keeping a minimum balance of N10,000 or more in their savingsxtra account.
One of the world renowned anditors KPMG, who supervised the draw process to ensure that every customer that qualifies entered the draw, affirmed that the draws so far have been well organised, transparent and in line with the laid down criteria governing the exercise. According to Mr. John Anyanwu, a 17 Advisory officer of KPMG to the draw, “over 6 million customers who were eligible to partake in this draw were all part of it and we can assure everybody that all valid e-tickets had an equal chance of emerging as a winner.”
It could be recalled that in January 2009, Mr. James Umaru Mbugadu, a civil servant and Lafia Doma Road Customer of the bank became the first Nigerianto win N50 million at once in a customer reward scheme. Since the presentation of the cheque to him in a well attended ceremony by top government dignitaries, traditional rulers and other stakeholders in Lafia, Nassarawa State, the bank’s savingsxtra account has been swelling up, resulting to greater customer confidence in the brand.
The savingsxtra scheme is Diamond Bank’s strategy of rewarding customers who operate a Diamond savingsxtra Account. Since the inception of the draw in July, 2008, N140 million has been given away to customers from the promised N200 million earmarked for the exercise during the one year.
Business
Food Vendors, Others Relocate To New Site At PH Airport
The raging controversy between the Port Harcourt International Airport Management and restaurants/canteen operators and theirallies over relocation has been brought under control, as the operators have commenced relocation to their structures at the new site.
Recall that there had been serious feud over a directive by the Manager of the airport, Mr. Michael Area, for food vendors and their allies to relocate to the new site.
They insisted that the new site was too distant and hence, would negatively affect patronage from customers, with possible loss.
They further also insisted that it wouldcost them much money to put up another structure, given the economic situation in the country, since the airport management did not build any structure for them, apart from providing the empty land they have to also pay for.
The situation had led to flexing of muscles, which made the Airport Manager to order for sealing of all shops, resulting in scarcity of food, as airport users could not find a place to eat, apart from the only Genesis fast food spot available.
As at last Friday, The Tide observed that most of the food vendors had transferred their structures to the new place, and had started doing business there already.
Meanwhile, customers have started settling down at the new location as they were seen patronising shops for foods and drinks, in spite of the distance.
Few of the remaining structures at the old site, The Tide further gathered, will also be removed as quickly as possible, and the owners are making efforts to get funds for the job to be done.
One of them, Mrs Aka Love explained that she was going to relocate to the new place before the end of March.
Currently, business activities at the old site have come to null, as the place which was usually a beehive of food, drinks and relaxation, has completely winded down.
By: Corlins Walter
Business
MOWCA Strengthens Maritime Crime Prevention
Secretary General of the Maritime Organisation of West and Central Africa (MOWCA), Dr. Paul Adalikwu, has stepped up interaction with the United States Government to lift restrictions placed on some member countries allegedly implicated in illicit shipping activities.
Adalikwu, who led a delegation from the MOWCA Secretariat to the US Embassy in Abidjan for a first leg of the strategic consultation aimed at promoting seamless participation of MOWCA countries in international trade within the global maritime space, reiterated the organisation’s commitment to the best ethical and lawful maritime practices.
Addressing the U.S Ambassador to Côte d’Ivoire, H.E Mrs Jessica Davis Ba, the MOWCA SG stated the organisation’s interest in promoting the International Ship and Port facility Security (ISPS) code which aims at enhancing security of vessels and their ports of call.
He expressed the commitment of MOWCA in promoting environmentally friendly, safe and cost effective shipping without any encumbrance that may limit the economic potential of member countries.
Dr Adalikwu recalled that at the instance of the U.S. Department of State invitation, MOWCA participated in the 2023 Registry Information Sharing Compact (RISC) Conference in Larnaca, Cyprus, on February 28–March 1, 2023, and a virtual meeting held on June 6 2023, with Mrs Jennifer Chalmers, Officer in change of Counterproliferation Initiative.
He recalled The U.S. DOS willingness to support MOWCA’s effort for preventive maritime security through the establishment of the Center for Information and Communication (CINFOCOM) with the aim to ensure a maritime situational awareness domain within MOWCA’s member states’ waters.
He added that MOWCA under his watch is committed to training and retraining of maritime practitioners and experts to enhance the human capital capabilities of member states.
The CINFOCOM will help prevent transnational crimes committed at sea like sanctions evasion by North Korea and other state actors, who exploit poor enforcement due diligence by ship open registries to circumvent United Nations and U.S. trade restrictions.
By: Nkpemenyie Mcdominic, Lagos
Business
Nigeria’s Public Debt Hits N97.3trn – DMO
The Debt Management Office (DMO) has hinted that Nigeria’s public debt increased by 10.7 per cent from N87.87 trillion in the third quarter of last year, to N97.34 trillion as at December 31, 2023.
DMO, in an update data released last Friday, said the increase in the debt stock was largely due to new domestic borrowing by the Federal Government to part finance the deficit in the 2024 Appropriation Act and disbursements by multilateral and bilateral lenders.
The office noted that the N97.3 trillion public debt comprises of domestic debt of N59.12 trillion and external debt of N38.22 trillion. The sum of $3.5 billion was used to service external debt during the review period.
“Nigeria’s Public Debt Stock as at December 31, 2023 was N97.34trillion or $108.229 billion. This amount comprises the domestic and external debt stocks of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN), the 36 States Governments, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
“There was an increase of N9.43 trillion over the comparative figure for September, 2023, which was largely due to new domestic borrowing by the FGN to part finance the deficit in the 2024 Appropriation Act and disbursements by multilateral and bilateral lenders.
“At N59.12 trillion, total domestic debt accounted for 61 percent of the total public debt stock, while external debt at N38.22 trillion accounted for the balance of 39 percent.
“Consistent with the debt management strategy, Nigeria’s external debt stock was skewed in favour of loans from multilateral (49.77 percent) and bilateral lenders (14.02 percent) or total of 63.79 percent which are mostly concessional and semi-concessional.
“Whilst the DMO continues to employ best practice in public debt management, the recent and on-going efforts of the fiscal authorities to shore up revenue will support debt sustainability”, DMO stated.
By: Corlins Walter
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