Business

Winner Lauds Bank’s Customer Reward Initiative

Published

13 years ago

July 24, 2009

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

LASG Begins Vehicle Parking Lanes Demacation

Published

9 hours ago

November 30, 2022

The Tide

The Lagos State Parking Authority (LASPA) has revealed it will today commence creating additional Vehicle Parking Lanes in some selected locations across the State.
The Authority stated that all efforts have been geared towards improving the parking system of the State.
Speaking on the planned initiative on Friday in Ikeja, the General Manager of LASPA, Mrs. Adebisi Adelabu, stated that the vehicle parking lane mark exercise, which will begin with designated streets within Surulere, Ikoyi, Lekki, Obalende, Ikeja and Victoria Island axis of the State, is a step towards improving street parking from 2023.
Adelabu noted that the Parking Lane Markings will further guide motorists and pedestrians on appropriate parking regulations and spaces, minimise indiscriminate parking, confusion and uncertainty, while conveying a range of information to residents on parking procedures within each specified environment.
According to her, the lane markings will also include special consideration for people living with disabilities and signposts for parking directives, among other features.
The General Manager, however, solicited the understanding of residents within the locations who might be affected by any inconvenience the process might cause, assuring that the government is working rigorously in regulating and improving the parking culture as part of its Traffic Management and Transportation Agenda to ensure parking is convenient, safe and secure across the state.
Recall that the Authority had recently unveiled plans to begin full implementation of parking policy in the second quarter of 2023 and has continued to sensitise the public on the need to embrace the parking culture.

By; Nkpemenyie Mcdominic, Lagos

Business

NIMASA Builds Maritime Institutes, Skill Acquisition Centres In Zones

Published

9 hours ago

November 30, 2022

The Tide

Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Bashir Yusuf Jamoh, has revealed that the agency is embarking on building six skill acquisition centres, and maritime institutes in each geopolitical zone of the country.
He disclosed this while receiving the Minister of Transportation, Dr. Mu’azu Jaji Sambo, and the Secretary General of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), Mr. Kitack Lim, during the commissioning of the new NIMASA head office in Victoria Island recently.
The NIMASA boss said the agency has already started building of ten of its offices in various states of the country, saying that 2022 is dedicated for projects.
“We dedicated 2022 as projects year and we have more than ten projects ongoing now, but we expect that before the end of this administration, we will commission them.
“Parts of the projects have something to do with human elements.
“We have six skill acquisition centres all over Nigeria, one per political zone, and we have six maritime institute projects. Each geopolitical zone has a university with maritime institute, just to build maritime assets,’’ he said.
He thanked the Minister for always being there, and also expressed appreciatiin to the IMO Secretary General for his visit to Nigeria, noting that he is the second IMO Secretary General to visit Nigeria, with the last visit having taken place 15 years ago.
“I am particularly delighted that he is commissioning this building today. He promised to come and has kept his promise”, he added.

By: Nkpemenyie Mcdominic, Lagos

Business

FG Borrows N24trn From CBN Amid Fiscal Risks

Published

9 hours ago

November 30, 2022

The Tide

Federal Government of Nigeria has borrowed N6.31trillion from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) through Ways and Means Advances in 10 months.
This amount has increased the total amount the Federal Government got from the CBN from N17.46trillion in December 2021 to N23.77trillion in October 2022.
It does not include the N23.77trillion the Federal Government is already owing CBN that is part of the country’s total public debt stock, which stood at N42.84trillion as at June 2022, according to the Debt Management Office.
The public debt stock only includes the debts of the Federal Government of Nigeria, the 36 state governments, and the Federal Capital Territory.
Ways and Means Advances is a loan facility through which the CBN finances the shortfalls in the government’s budget.
Section 38 of the CBN Act, 2007, states that the CBN may grant temporary advances to the Federal Government with regard to temporary deficiency of budget revenue at such rate of interest as the bank may determine.
The Act read in part, “The total amount of such advances outstanding shall not at any time exceed five per cent of the previous year’s actual revenue of the Federal Government.
“All advances shall be repaid as soon as possible and shall, in any event, be repayable by the end of the Federal Government financial year in which they are granted and if such advances remain unpaid at the end of the year, the power of the bank to grant such further advances in any subsequent year shall not be exercisable, unless the outstanding advances have been repaid.”
The CBN, however, said on its website that the Federal Government’s borrowing from it through the Ways and Means Advances could have adverse effects on the bank’s monetary policy to the detriment of domestic prices and exchange rates.
“The direct consequence of central bank’s financing of deficits are distortions or surges in the monetary base leading to adverse effects on domestic prices and exchange rates i.e macroeconomic instability because of excess liquidity that has been injected into the economy,” it said.
The apex bank had last November warned the Federal Government against financing deficits by borrowing from the CBN through the Ways and Means Advances, saying this putd fiscal pressures on the country’s expenditures.
Despite warnings from experts and organisations, the Federal Government has kept borrowing from the CBN to fund budget deficits.
The Tide source noted that the Federal Government paid an interest of N2.03trillion from January 2020 to November 2021 on the loans it got from the CBN through the Ways and Means Advances.
It was also reported that the Federal Government paid an interest of N405.93billion from January 2022 to April 2022 on the loans it got from the CBN.
Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Cowry Asset Management Limited, Mr Johnson Chukwu, recently said the Central Bank’s lending to the government was putting pressure on the exchange rate and the inflation rate, with “liquidity that has no productivity attached to it coming into the system.”
An economist, Dr Aliyu Ilias, criticised the government for its constant reliance on borrowing, which was unhealthy for the economy.
He further urged the government to seek better ways of generating revenue rather than persistently borrowing from the apex bank.