Just a few months ago, it would have been unthinkable to imagine that Safaricom customers would be unwilling to redeem their Bonga points. The telco’s loyalty program came in handy to most Kenyans who were struggling to make ends meet. It brought a much-needed relief to a majority of them who were able to redeem their points with various items such as air tickets, shopping in supermarkets as well as paying for school fees. But as it stands, things are not the same as they were before.
When Safaricom partnered with the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) to allow subscribers on its network redeem their loyalty points and purchase stocks, no one would have imagined that the program would face a slow uptake as it stands now. Apparently, rich Kenyans are neither willing to trade in their Bonga Points with various redeemable prizes.
Latest data that we have from Nairobi securities Exchange indicate that only a about Kenya Shillings 600,000 worth of stocks has so far been redeemed by Safaricom customers using their Bonga Points. So far, only around 3 million loyalty points have been traded in for stocks, which only accounts for a paltry 0.015 percent of an estimated Kenya Shillings 4 Billion currently held in Bonga Points by Kenyans.
Back in the day, Safaricom and Nairobi Securities Exchange announced their partnership which would have allowed Kenyans to access stock using loyalty points from the telco. Compared to similar arrangements that were born during the COVID-19 such as shopping for various items in the supermarkets, paying for air tickets, buying electricity tokens as well as paying for school fees, buying stock using loyalty points doesn’t seem to be attracting any hype at the moment.
