You can now purchase NSE shares with Bonga Points
Members of the public queue at a Safaricom customer care centre along Kimathi street to redeem bonga points on August 13, 2010.
You can now own part of a listed company just using your Bonga Points.
This follows the launch of a partnership between Safaricom and the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) yesterday to enable Kenyans to invest in stocks using their accrued Bonga Points.
The partnership will see Safaricom customers get Sh1 for every five points, which they can then use to buy stocks from the participating companies.
This is the latest innovation on Safaricom’s 15-year-old Bonga Points product, adding onto the other uses such as Jisort na Bonga, which empowers customers to redeem their points for phones and accessories at Safaricom shops or dealer outlets, and the Lipa Na Bonga — introduced in 2016 to enable customers to use their points to pay for goods and services via Lipa Na M-Pesa.
“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 chief executive.
To invest, customers will need to redeem their points at a rate of Sh1 for every five points via the Lipa na Bonga menu on USSD *126# or through use of MySafaricom App, before entering the Trading Participant’s (the company they are interested in buying stocks from) paybill number followed by their Central Depository and Settlement Corporation account number.
Safaricom says 10 firms have been activated namely 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. More are set to join.
“Through this initiative, we intend to unlock more investment opportunities to investors using convenient and innovative solutions. The partnership resonates with our resolve to connect capital with opportunities as anchored in the NSE 2020-2024 strategic plan,” said Geoffrey Odundo, NSE chief executive.
Retail investors
It further provides an avenue for retail investors to participate in the NSE and is coming on the backdrop of the stock market’s recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Geoffrey Odundo, NSE chief executive.
Introduced in 2007 to reward customers based on how much they use Safaricom’s products and services, the Bonga loyalty scheme has to date accumulated 16 billion points, valued at Sh4 billion, Safaricom stated. Customers accumulate a point for every KES 10 spent on voice, data, SMS and M-PESA charges.
The new service is available to all Safaricom customers, who can redeem their points through licensed Trading Participants.
Other current uses for Bonga Points also include settling utility bills such as Home Fibre, PostPay, KPLC, GOTV and DSTV as well as NHIF and NSSF dues.
