Last updated on July 15th, 2020 at 01:36 pm
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Kenya’s Safaricom and South Africa’s Vodacom have fully acquired M-Pesa, the largest mobile money operator in Kenya and East Africa.
Kenya’s Safaricom and South Africa’s Vodacom have fully acquired the stake of UK telecoms operator Vodafone. Vodafone is a long-time stakeholder of M-Pesa since its launch in 2007.
Vodafone has been earning license fees from the use of the service. But under the new ownership agreement, M-Pesa’s products, brand and future plans will be controlled by Safaricom and Vodacom.
Safaricom Introduces Bonga Service
Safaricom and Vodacom is now looking to expand the M-Pesa services into other Africa countries. The service is already popular in East Africa like Tanzania, Kenya including in India, Romania and some other countries.
In Nigeria and Ethiopia—Africa’s two most populous countries, the probability of gaining customers is even more bigger though it will have to compete with the likes of MTN mobile money and Airtel mobile money in Nigeria.
With a proven successful records in expansion into India, Albania and Romania, its extension of mobile money service into Nigeria and other African countries might as well be successful.
See Also: Coronavirus COVID-19: Kenyans Can Now Process Transaction Below 1,000 KES Free for the Next 90 Days Using Safaricom’s M-Pesa.
With the Sub Saharan Africa accounting for over 60 percent of the $690 billion transacted through mobile money services in 2019, M-Pesa still have an opportunity to tap into the billion dollar market.
M-Pesa Digital Token—Bonga Points:
Bonga Points—Lipa Na Bonga (Pay with Bonga Points) was introduced by Safaricom with a deep integration into M-Pesa to allow Kenyas use and adopt its digital payments.
Following the failed adoption of its Bonga app dubbed Bonga Sasa, the company introduced Lipa Na Bonga to drive adoption of the Bonga Sasa. But with the adverse effect of COVID-19, Kenyans might adopt the use of Bonga Points in Kenya.
Kenyans can use Bonga Points to purchase food and other provisions at any retail outlet with a Lipa Na Mpesa Till Number.
From the current Bonga Point System, five Bonga points is backed one-on-one to 1 Kenyan Shillings.
The adoption of Bonga points might help the wider adoption of Bonga Sasa utilizing its M-Pesa network of over 27 million users.
About Bonga:
Safaricom introduced Bonga social networking platform following the launch of Bonga Sasa in 2018 to enable seamless conversations and communications with a deep M-PESA integration.
Bonga service application was developed by the Alpha Innovation team, which was set up in 2017 by Safaricom to enable the company innovate and provide new solutions based on market demands.
The platform is in three phases:
Bonga Sasa: This is a mobile money transfer focused app allowing the user to chat with other user and request, send and get money receipts.
Bonga Baraza: This app helps to facilitate the collection of funds for specific events such as crowdfunding, fundraise and donations.
Bonga Biashara: This is an e-commerce driven mobile app that will allow users or businesses to create business user profiles for selling products and services.
About The Author
Tony Chimdiuto 
Nsikanabasi Edet