Safaricom’s chief innovation officer Kamal Bhattacharya, said Bonga would be rolled out to customers in the next few months.

Safaricom already operates one of the World's most successful mobile money service "M-Pesa" which it plans to integrate with Bonga allowing its users to send money to each other while chatting through the messaging service.

Safaricom’s Alpha innovation incubator which was created last year is the team behind the new chat messaging App" Bonga".  Last year it also launched Masoko, an e-commerce platform.

 

 

 

Bonga -- New Chat Messaging Service. The new service will have further iterations to target different usecases; 

             

             -- Bonga Sasa  for messaging and money transfer between users while chatting with each other.

                           

             -- Bonga Baraza for fundraising  (Harambee in Swahili).

 

             -- Bonga Biashara  for E- commerce.

 

Bonga Points -- Already in existence. It's used by Safaricom customers to redeem free talk time, and data when they pay for various services using M-Pesa.

 

Masoko -- E-commerce platform(Fairly new)

 

M-Pesa -- Mobile Money Sending Service (It's biggest money maker) World's Most successful mobile money sending platform.

 

M-Shwari -- M-Shwari provides financial access to millions of Kenyans who previously had no access allowing them access micro savings and micro credit straight from their phones.

 

Lipa Na M-Pesa -- is a service for use by a business owner with a Lipa na M-PESA account through which he/she receives payments for goods bought via M-PESA.

 

M-Akiba -- Allows Kenyans to Buy and sell Government Bonds from their phones

 

M-Tiba -- is a service that allows Kenya to send, save and spend funds specifically for medical treatment from their phones. Funds stored in M-TIBA can only be used to pay for services and medication at specific healthcare facilities which carry the M-TIBA logo.

 

M- Kopa --  Offer “pay-as-you-go” energy services for 300,000 off-grid households. These Kenyans previously without electricity, are powering homes and devices with solar panels and using M-Pesa mobile money to pay for it.  

 

 

Bonga will now allow Safaricom to act like a social network to its 30 Million subscribers. The new service is being described as a “conversational and transactional social network.” It's being fully integrated with Safaricom's current other apps and services so think;

 

 

 

 

 

- - Chat between Safaricom' current subscribers

 

- - Send money to each other via M-Pesa

 

- - Buy, sell, pay, and promote a wide range of products(Rent, tuition, solar kits, betting, gaming etc.) via chat + Masoko (E-commerce platform) users will be able to create business profiles linked to their social media profiles and M-Pesa accounts so they can sell or promote products online.

 

Simply put all businesses including the informal businessmen/women in Kenya will use Bonga taking advantage of its integration with M-Pesa, and other popular Safaricom apps widely used in Kenya.

 

-- Organize Harambees (Fundraising) via chat

Safaricom’s chief innovation officer Kamal Bhattacharya said “We think there’s an intrinsic relationship between conversations and transactions, and that fundamental principle is what we wanted to build a platform around.” He also said that Bonga will have end to end encryption, and that no data would be retained by the chat service. Kenya however does not have data privacy laws.

The service will be free initially since its already connected to M-Pesa which is monetized.

 

 

Safaricom), PayPal and TransferTo  also announced in April 2018 a collaboration on a new service that allows movement of funds between M-PESA and PayPal accounts, a huge boost to international eCommerce. Qualifying M-PESA customers in Kenya can now link their PayPal accounts to their M-PESA wallets which they can top up in real-time using their M-PESA balances, enabling them to easily and securely buy goods and services from merchants around the globe. Customers can then withdraw funds within a timespan of few hours to three days, depending on the transaction amount.

In addition, M-PESA customers can still receive and withdraw money from more than 140,000 agents across the Kenya. The new service also gives Kenyan merchants the opportunity to boost their reach and grow their business internationally. M-Pesa generated about $525 million of Safaricom's  $2 billion in annual revenues.  Safaricom is also planning to take Bonga to other African countries once it becomes successful in Kenya.

 

 

 

Kenya’s government  holds a 35% share in Safaricom

 South African group Vodacom holds 35 %

 Vodacom’s major shareholder Vodafone holds 5 %.

Retail Investors via Nairobi Stock Exchange 25 %