How to earn and redeem Safaricom bonga points.

Safaricom bonga is one of safaricom's multiple consumer reward programs better known as loyalty programs aimed at rewarding Safaricom customers for staying loyal to their brand through purchase of  various services and products.

What is Safaricom bonga
This is a loyalty program that rewards Safaricom subscribers for staying loyal to the brand by purchasing various products and services.
It is more of an incentive whereby safaricom subscribers earn points when they purchase various services like calls data or SMS. Later the points can be redeemed for a range of rewards as explained below.
For every Ksh.10 spend, you earn one bonga point which you can accumulate to any amount you want and can redeem at any one given time.
Other telco providers in the country also have a similar reward program including Telkom ziada and Airtel Zawadi, but Bonga points is the most successful of the three.

Bonga points brief history.
First introduced in the year 2007, Safaricom bonga program has seen major improvements. By then, customers could only redeem their points for free talk time and SMS . In the year 2010, the number of redeemable items increased to 3 with introduction of free airtime.
In December 2010; for the first time; Safaricom customers were able to redeem their Bonga points for phones.
This is when the initiative really got the attention of Kenyans. Towards the end of 2010, Mpesa users could earn bonga points for carrying out various mpesa transactions which included sending and withdrawing mpesa plus paying bills. In June 2011, Safaricom improved the service further by introducing bonga points transfer, such that one could transfer their bonga points to another number. This however came with a challenge, after customers complained that people were stealing their bonga, and this prompted safaricom to add a bonga pin security.

How to enroll for bonga points.
Dial *126# and select option 4,'enroll'.

Earning bonga points
Doing any of the following rewards you with bonga points:

• Making calls
• Sending SMS or MMS
• Purchasing data bundles
• Using mpesa to send money, withdraw of pay bills.

For every ksh. 10 airtime spend or transacted on mpesa you earn one bonga point.

To check your bonga points balance.
Dial *126# and select option 2. You will receive an SMS with your exact bonga balance. Alternatively go to my Safaricom app and click on services, then bonga points. Your bonga balance will be automatically displayed.

How to redeem bonga points.
Dial *126# then select option 3,'redeem bonga points'. Choose if you want free minutes, airtime or data bundles then select from the many options given.

Free Talk time
You can redeem for the following minutes:
Minutes.   Bonga points

• 4.              50
• 8.              100
• 15.            200
• 25             300
• 35             400
• 40.            500
• 60             800
• 75             1000
• 115           1500
• 150           2000
• 250.          3000
• 300           4,000

Airtime bonga redemption.
The following are available airtime options:
Airtime(Ksh.)    Bonga points

• 3                          10
• 10                        25
• 210                     700
• 300                     1000
• 450                     1500
• 600                      2000

Data bundles.
You can choose from the following:
Data         bonga points

• 7 Mb        15
• 10             30
• 15             35
• 30             70
• 65             170
• 130           350
• 350           840
• 1 Gb.        1700
• 3 Gb          3300

How to buy goods and services with bonga points.
You can actually convert your bonga points to cash and use it to purchase goods and services at selected stores using either pay bill or buy goods and services

1. Dial *126# and select lipa na bonga points.
2. If you are using Till number, select buy goods. If Using pay bill number select pay bill.
3. For buy goods, enter the Business number. For pay bill enter the account number.
4. Enter the amount to pay then your mpesa pin number and send.

You will receive a confirmation SMS with a reference number and bonga points redeemed.

Please note that 5 bonga points are equivalent to Ksh. 1. For example, if you want to pay ksh.1000, then you will redeem 5000 bonga points.
This option is not available on my Safaricom app.

How to redeem bonga points for Kenya Airways Ticket.
Now you can redeem your bonga points for a domestic flight thanks to Kenya Airways.
To do so, dial *126#, then option 3 followed by option 7 and follow the prompts.
You can choose from the following:

1. Domestic one way at 28,000 points economy or 56,000 Business.
2. Return- 40,000 points economy or80,000 Business.
3. Via Nairobi one way- 56,000 economy or 112,000 Business.
4. Return via Nairobi- 80,000 points economy or 160,000 Business.

Telkom Kenya have a reward system similar to bonga points known as Ziada points which also reward Telkom customers when they buy data,SMS or make calls. For every Ksh.1 bob spent, Telkom gives 1 ziada poin.Unlike bonga points, Ziada points cannot be transferred.

Related:

How to transfer/Sambaza Bonga Points.