Safaricom has added an expiry date to its loyalty programme, known as Bonga Points, to recover and generate the underlying revenue, which totalled Ksh4.5 billion as of March this year.
All unredeemed Bonga points will now expire after three years, according to the telco company. Therefore any points acquired before December 31, 2019, will expire on January 1, 2023.
The decision to have loyalty points expire was explained by Safaricom as a business decision to encourage redemption.
Despite the company expanding the options for redemption to include the purchase of shares at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE), airtime, phones, and even plane tickets, the value of outstanding or unredeemed points has been rising over the years, reaching Ksh4.5 billion in March 2022 from Ksh3billion in 2015.
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Over the last seven years, the outstanding value of unclaimed points has doubled, from Ksh2.2 billion in 2015 to Ksh4.5 billion this year.
“Effective January 1, 2023, all Bonga points older than three years will expire and will be unavailable for redemption,” said Safaricom in updated terms and conditions for the loyalty programme.
“Your Bonga points will also expire immediately if your line has been deleted as a result of inactivity and following the terms and conditions for the use of the Safaricom services.”
In Safaricom’s books, the loyalty points are recorded as a liability or deferred income. They are only recorded as revenue when redeemed by customers for airtime, SMS, goods and shopping.
Additionally, the business counts the money from churning SIM cards’ loyalty points. A similar idea is applied to account for airtime sales. Customers who purchase prepaid airtime have that money retained as deferred income until they use it.
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The loyalty programme, launched in January 2007, awards customers one Bonga point for every Ksh10 spent on the Safaricom network on the phone, mobile data, and SMS and for every Ksh100 spent on the network for M-Pesa transactions.
Business clients can earn loyalty points when they meet their sales goals and redeem them when their revenue contracts with Safaricom are over.
How To Utilie Your Bonga Points
Free Phones, Tablets, and Accessories
Bonga Points can be redeemed for a variety of smartphones, tablets, and accessories at Safaricom stores across the country. You will receive a passcode to provide at any Safaricom shop to view the options available to you depending on your remaining unredeemed points whenever you attempt to redeem your points using the USSD menu.
Purchase Of Data
Data bundles are a data redemption option using Bonga points. 80MB of data is now available for 100 Bonga points.
Lipa na Bonga Points
Lipa na Bonga Points, like Lipa na M-Pesa, allows you to utilise your loyalty points to make purchases at any merchant who uses the “Buy Goods” or “Pay Bill” service to accept payments for their goods or services. To find out how much your Bonga Points are worth in actual money for transactions, use the Bonga Calculator on the *126* USSD menu.
Minutes
You can redeem your Bonga points for minutes on voice calls. For 300 Bonga Points, the expiring minutes’ packages include 100 minutes valid for two days.
SMS
Safaricom SMS message bundles can be purchased using your Bonga points. You can receive 20 24-hour-valid SMS for 15 points.
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