Safaricom sets a Deadline for The Bonga Mobile Internet Service

Safaricom has limited the amount of time customers can use up data resources purchased with Bonga loyalty points, signalling an aggressive policy to encourage the use of the points, which are a liability to the telco.

According to the telco’s terms and conditions, Bonga data bundles that were previously marked as having no expiry now have a validity of seven days.

Meanwhile, data redemptions on the telco’s Bonga points USSD platform show that Bonga data purchases, which range from 80 MB to one gigabyte, expire at midnight on the day of purchase.

Redeeming minutes of airtime or call time is good for seven days, whereas reclaiming SMS is valid for between 24 hours and 30 days, depending on the amount of units redeemed.

“The data bundles purchased will be valid for seven (7) days after which any unused resources will expire and will no longer be available for use,” the telco’s terms and conditions on Bonga bundles state.

The telco’s decision to limit the lifespan of the Bonga resources mirrors its recent efforts to persuade members to use all of their loyalty points.

Even though the company expanded the options for redemption to include the merchant payments through its Lipa na M-Pesa and Paybill options, as well as the purchase of plane tickets, the value of outstanding or unredeemed points has been rising over the years, reaching Sh4.5 billion in March 2022 from Sh3 billion in 2015.

However, the value of Bonga points has not remained constant throughout time, with each loyalty point having a different value depending on whether it is being used to purchase goods or services other than goods.

The loyalty points are recorded in Safaricom’s books as a liability, or deferred income, and are only recorded as revenue when they are redeemed by consumers for airtime, SMS, goods, or shopping.

Additionally, the business counts the money from churning SIM cards’ loyalty points. The similar idea is applied by Safaricom to account for airtime sales.

Customers who purchase prepaid airtime have that money retained as deferred income until they actually use it.

For every Sh10 spent on phone, mobile data, and SMS on the Safaricom network as well as for every Sh100 spent on the network for M-Pesa transactions, members receive one Bonga point under the loyalty program, which was introduced in January 2007.