Gradually the large meeting room at the First Bank Office located at elephant house broad street Lagos began to fill with people. As people walked in, they took their seats by the long vinyl table. The group is a combination of regulators, KPMG and First Bank staff. A young lady and man where working on their laptops another lady would later join them. I later learnt they are staff of Tequila and KPMG, the handlers of the FirstBank XploreFirst Promo.
Everyone seated waited with bated breath as the projector and the laptop were set up for the commencement of the electronic raffle draw that will produce another set of thirty winners drawn from six geopolitical zones.
Seated at the table with us were members of the National Lottery Regulatory Commission, and Lagos State Lottery Board.
Before long, Adetokunbo Eliot, product manager, XploreFirst, walked in. Her arrival signalled the beginning of the draw.
David Adegboyega, specialist, product promotions, FirstBank introduced some staff of the bank present. He later asked everyone to introduced who they are.
Segun Ogunegbe of Tequila who handled the draw said a secured web interface is used for the draw. “A total number of 9, 477 entries came from Lagos. And we are careful to ensure the same winners are not repeated the following month. It takes 34-36 seconds for the first winner to be picked. It is ideal for us to have a unique winner per month from each zone,” he said.
Five winners each from Lagos, South West, South-South, South East, North East West and North Central from the December draw joined the existing winners from two draws done in October and November 2018.
Eliot said XploreFirst account is a unique FirstBank savings account variant designed specifically for students between the age range of 18 – 29 years. A minimum amount of N1, 000 is required to open the account and account holders are to maintain a minimum balance of N200 to run the account.
She explained that the XploreFirst promo is one of the special benefits of the account. “Customers are offered yearly scholarships of N150,000 as incentives to maintain a certain amount of deposit, in this case, N10,000 in their account over a 30-day period to qualify for the monthly draws and giveaways. Customers would successfully maintain the set balance over the six months period are eligible to win the jackpot of N150,000, the grand finale prize. Grand finale will also be selected from the Bank’s six geopolitical zones,” she said.
With winners from the monthly draw selected from the bank’s six geopolitical zones, they are entitled to N5, 000 each which they are encouraged to use for data purchase for their mobile phones.
“This account is targeted at ages 18-29 who are expected to still be in school who need data to browse the internet to connect with friends or to get information online to aid their studies. We are doing this to encourage saving culture within this age group. Winners who emerged today will be contacted via telephone,” added Elliot.
