You can now own part of a publicly listed company by using your Bonga Points.
This is after Safaricom inked a deal with the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) with the aim of enabling Kenyans to invest in stocks using their accrued Bonga Points.
The partnership, launched on August 9, will see the telco’s customers get a value of Sh1 for every 5 points, which they can then use to buy stocks from companies that have been activated on the platform, thus enabling them to use Bonga Points for investment.
"As we focus on the next phase of our journey to go beyond, our aim is to continue transforming the lives of our customers by delivering a wide range of products and services that align with their needs. Through this partnership with NSE, we seek to give our customers more value and utility for their Bonga Points while creating more avenues for driving economic empowerment," said Peter Ndegwa, Safaricom’s chief executive officer on Monday.
To invest, customers will need to redeem their points via the ‘Lipa Na Bonga’ menu on USSD *126# or through the MySafaricom App.
The firm says ten trading firms have have already been activated for the new service. These are NCBA Capital, Faida Investment Bank, AIB-AXYS, ABC Capital, Old Mutual Securities, Kingdom Securities, Suntra Investments, Francis Drummond & Company, Dyer & Blair Investments and Sterling Capital LTD.
Safaricom’s Bonga Points programme has been in existence for close to 15 years.
Introduced in 2007 to reward customers based on how much they use Safaricom’s services, the loyalty scheme has to date accumulated 16 billion points valued at Sh4 billion, Safaricom says.
Customers currently get a point for every Sh10 spent on voice, data, SMS and M-Pesa.
Amani National Congress party leader Musalia Mudavadi on Saturday unveiled an ambitious economic blue-print that he said would prioritise job creation, fight corruption and reduce public debt as he seeks the country’s top seat in next year’s election.
Mr Mudavadi who has already announced his candidature for the presidency, yesterday said that if elected, his administration will not only create millions of jobs for Kenyans, but will also restructure the ballooning public debt, weed out corruption and bureaucracy in government as well as generate enough funds to sustain and run the economy without much borrowing.
He said that his job creation plan will focus on a model known as "uchumi bora kwa wote na pesa mfukoni or a better economy; […]