Safaricom pilots messaging App linked to M-Pesa

Safaricom is piloting a social messaging app that will link to M-Pesa in an attempt to move the company into the application business, the company has said.

Bonga, which means chat in Kiswahili, will allow users to communicate beyond sending money to one another, transforming the platform into a type of social network.

“It’s one thing to share information with somebody it’s another thing to make a payment, to send money to somebody,” Kamal Bhattacharya, chief innovation officer at Safaricom, said in a telephone interview.

“We want to use this platform to make it much easier … for people to engage.”

Bhattacharya said M-Pesa users will be able to message each other on Bonga in three ways: user-to-user, user-to-business and fundraising through “social groups” much like the group function on WhatsApp.

Bonga is the first product launched by the company’s innovation incubator Alpha.

Safaricom is piloting Bonga with it’s staff before planning to launch later this year.