FirstBank, Verve Excite Customers with New Car, N50m, Other Prizes
By Bolaji Israel
Excited customers could not hide their joy and enthusiasm when First Bank of Nigeria Limited and Verve made good the promise to shower customers with mouth watering gifts as a reward for their loyalty especially for card transactions.
Mr Olakunle Animasaun, an entrepreneur was the lucky winner of the grand prize of a brand new Suzuki car which was presented to him at a ceremony on Friday.
An elated Animashaun thanked FirstBank and Verve for the opportunity and reward given to him as the winner of the grand prize.
“I feel so happy, grateful and very surprised. This car is such a wonderful blessing because I didn’t expect it. When they contacted me, I thought it was a scam, until my wife asked me to go to the bank and verify after receiving series of calls.
“When I got to the bank I was congratulated for winning a car. I thank FirstBank and Verve so much,’’ he said.
Apart from Animashaun, other lucky customers were full of commendation as they received a total sum of N50 million for 2,631 customers who participated in the promo and other prizes including airtime, power generating sets, refrigerator, cooking gas and television sets.
The 14-week promo, a joint initiative of FirstBank and Verve was designed to reward Verve Card customers for their continued usage and adoption of the card for various digitally driven transactions.
Speaking at the prize presentation on Friday in Lagos, Mr Chuma Ezirim, FirstBank’s Group Executive, E-Business and Retail Products, said that the aim of the promo was to appreciate the bank’s over eight million Verve Debit Card holder.
“We have given out over N50 million worth of prizes to 2,631 customers including the grand prize of a brand new car to be given out today.
“Other prizes given out during the promo were: N50,000, N20, 000 and N10, 000 cash prizes, N10,000 worth of airtime; power generating sets, refrigerator, cooking gas and television sets.
“We are excited at the response of customers to the promo and encourage the continued usage of the Verve Card as it is a card offering that promotes safe, convenient and rewarding digital banking serviceto customers,’’ he said.
Ezirim said that the bank would continue to provide the best financial services possible through its versatile products, services and initiatives to customers.
He added that the bank continue to engage in the right collaborations that would put its customers first.
Also speaking, Mrs Folasade Femi-Lawal, Head Card Business, FirstBank, described the promo as `unique and first of its kind’ across the industry in a long while.
Femi-Lawal said, “While other banks share out items, Verve and FirstBank decided to reward her esteem customers with a brand new car aside the other prizes.
“We started industry wide for eight weeks and then by popular demand and with the support of management of FirstBank and Verve, we decided to extend by six weeks, so the entire promo ran for 14 weeks.
“In the course of this, we had 800 winners who won N10, 000 cash, 800 winners won N10, 000 airtime, we also had 800 winners that won N20,000, 100 customers won N50, 000 cash, 40 customers went home with gas cookers, 30 customers went home with brand new refrigerators, 30 customers won 32 inches television sets, 30 customers went home with brand new generators and finally a grand prize winner.
“What is actually germane about this particular winner is to underscore FirstBank support and Verve to SMEs and businesses,” she said.
In an interview, Vincent Ogbunide, Chief Executive Officer, Verve International, said as a leader in card and payment solutions, Verve has been in partnership with First Bank for about 15 years with the goal to make payment easier and exciting for customers.
“We came together to reward our customers due to a common desire to reward, appreciate, offer enduring value and best experience for customers. This promo is a manifestation of that common desire.
“To make the collaboration better, we raised the grand prize a notch this year to excite customers. We are interested in keeping this going and customers should expect more definitely. We are looking forward to the prize getting more,” he said.
The Verve boss revealed that the financial organization was “Working on having an always-on reward system that will generate points for customers as they transact. The point will then lead to reward consistently and progressively. Our customers will be benefitting from this too.
Reacting to card security, he said, “Over time we had introduced safety features on the current secured cards that have made it very difficult to clone for criminals. Many years ago, it was fairly easy to clone a card. You can have your card and someone else can use it. That has become a thing of the past. That was the first biggest innovation on card security that obtains today and it has already crystalized.
“Going forward, we are looking at introducing some biometrics into the card system that will allow us authenticate the customer. We are also tagging operation such that during onboarding we do necessary Know Your Customers KYC system that will further bolster security features on card transactions. We have a wide range of innovation around security and giving value. We believe customers will experience these features and appreciate us even more.”
Representatives of the National Lottery Commission, Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) and the Lagos State Lotteries and Gaming Authority witnessed the grand finale.
