Nairobi — Customers who fail to pay their Okoa Jahazis will have their Bonga Points deducted automatically by Safaricom.

Through this, the telco seeks to cut growing Bonga Point debts that add up to millions of shillings.

Its roll out will also allow the company to collect overdue airtimes.

For instance, some customers possess more than five mobile lines with unpaid airtimes.

"From a perspective we are looking at it as a good thing. It's another way of telling customers that you can utilize your Bonga points to pay your okoa jahazi loans," an anonymous Safaricom employee said.

Safaricom charges 10 percent advance fee on okoa jahazi.

It is open to all Safaricom prepay customers, with customer limits growing each time they buy airtime.

Previously, Safaricom opted to put an expiry on the Bonga points its customers owed, a move that was reversed indefinitely amidst implementation.

The suspension of the Bonga points' viability would have informed an automatic expiry of unclaimed Bonga points effective at the beginning of the year.