Upgrade the value of bonga points

 

Upgrade with bonga points

Bonga points have been in use for many years. Initially, they were only used to purchase airtime. Now they can be used for a variety of things. It can buy phones, food items from selected stores and very recently, it is now being used to purchases company shares. Now is there a way we can boost its use?

Change the way we value bonga points.

If you go to a second-hand clothing shop, you can get a male suit at 1,000 ksh. If you go to certain supermarkets, you can get one at around 4,000ksh. If you go to certain designers, they may charge you 100,000ksh or more. What is the difference? You will probably say quality. That is true. The second-hand one will be most likely be a classic suit, the supermarket one will be made in China, and the designer one will be made from goat hair from the Himalayan mountains. The second point, which is the point I’m driving at, is value. Different people will value things differently. Many of us own second-hand clothes and we are happy with that. Also, many of us are not able to buy brand new clothes all the time but that is a story for another day. On the other hand, some people have never worn second-hand clothes. They can’t imagine putting on something that someone else has no more use for. So it’s safe to say different people value things differently. The same goes for bonga points.

Many wealthier people, I would assume, don’t know how many bonga points they have. They probably just accumulate them in their phones and never use them. On the other hand, many other people constantly use their points to purchase airtime and use them for other purposes. This means they value the points more than the wealthier people. The next step would then be to increase the value of the points. How can that be done? Change the mindset of the people on the ground. If all the businesses in a community agree to use bonga points to trade it would greatly improve the lives of the people in that area. For example, traders can agree to sell one Tomato at 1 bonga point. Three onions can go for 2 points and one full cabbage at 3 points. So with 6 bonga points, you have your vegetables ready. You only need to think about flour. The second and easier way is you can come as a community and agree on how you will be valuing bonga points. You may agree to set a specific monetary value for the points. For example, you can say 1 bonga point is equal to 100ksh. So if one kilogram of meat goes for 400ksh, you only need to have 4 points to enjoy the product.

Drawbacks to the plan

As usual, all the articles I’ve written have hurdles. The first challenge to this plan is that Safaricom only allows users to move 50 points and above from one number to another. I hope they will change this in the future. The other challenge is that you have to convince so many people for this idea to work. That will also be hard.

Benefits

The benefits are sweeter than the drawbacks. Let’s start:-

1. Everyone will benefit from this idea. Safaricom will make more money because people will use their services more to get bonga points. People on the ground will get more value from their points than what they are currently getting. It will be a win-win situation.

2. People can sell their points for cash. If you have 1000 points and in your community, 1 bonga point is equal to 100 ksh, you can sell 100 points to someone, of course at a discount, and make some cash. You can then use this cash to go to town and spend the money in a non-participating outlet.

 

Question: can Airtel and Telkom also do the same?

Yes. They have Zawadi and Ziada points. Those points can be used the same way as bonga points.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading. Go check your bonga points balance. Also, share this article with your friends. They will see that you enjoy reading thought-provoking material and see how smart you are.