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Safaricom has announced that Bonga Points will now be expiring, starting from January 1st, 2023.
The loyalty program has been around for more than one decade and a half. It allows customers to accrue units named Bonga Points. One Bonga Point is an equivalent of KES 10 used on the Safaricom network.
Now, there are people who have a substantial amount of Bonga units, and they do not use them in any way. This, however, is bad for Safaricom because the points have to be used for them to make any financial value to Safaricom. Still, these people do not redeem them, and for whatever reason, Safaricom plans to compel them to do so.
In terms of numbers, the value of idle Bonga Points has since ballooned from KES 3 billion in 2015, to KES 4.5 billion in 2022.
In a FAQ page, the carrier has explicitly stated that it wants customers to ‘encourage’ customers to redeem these nuggets.
Their expiry date will, of course, depend on the number of points a person has, meaning a ton of them will last for a while before they are taken away (three years).
This is also the point where we mention that there are many services that allow Bonga Point redemption, including Supermarkets and Safaricom Shops where customers can shop for stuff they might want. If that person is you, then you can choose that route. Alternatively, you can redeem them for data, SMS, or voice, including cases where customers can use them to pay their postpaid bills.
To note, you cannot reinstate your expired Bonga Points, nor will you be able to extend their validity.
As said, this expiry session will start in 2023. All non-redeemed Bonga points older than three years, that is from December 2019, will expire and will be unavailable for redemption.
Lastly, you will not be able to reverse a Lipa na Bonga transaction once the points have expired.
So, take note of this development, and redeem the points as soon as you can, and while they are useful to you.
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