Ongoing efforts to make smartphones affordable to more Africans while still ensuring a margin for sellers are continuing. In fact, this week has seen an alliance between Africa’s best-known home-grown electronic marketplace and a financing group to encourage more Kenyans to buy smartphones.
Jumia Group, whose Jumia pan-African e-commerce platform is active across nine countries in the continent, has entered into a strategic partnership with pan-African financing group Watu Credit to make smartphones more accessible to millions of Kenyans through flexible financing options.
Under the arrangement, customers shopping on Jumia can now spread payments over daily, weekly or monthly instalments via mobile money.
The initiative also strikes a balance between affordability and sustainable credit practices by integrating Watu Credit’s IoT-enabled lending model. This means that if repayments are missed, handsets are locked.
Watu has already financed close to two million devices in Kenya since 2022. This collaboration, however, will make popular premium brands like Samsung more attainable, opening opportunities for first-time smartphone owners as well as those seeking upgrades.
It’s worth noting that smartphones are consistently among Jumia’s best-selling items, and smartphone penetration in Kenya has reached nearly 80%. However, that still means a large portion of users continue to rely on low-end devices due to price barriers.
The Jumia-Watu programme will initially be rolled out through agent-assisted purchases before expanding to a fully online process, where customers will be able to choose their device, complete a digital know-your-customer (KYC) process, and have the phone delivered to their doorstep.
It’s certainly the case that reliable smartphones are increasingly essential for income generation, education, healthcare access and digital literacy. They can also help small entrepreneurs, students, gig workers, and families to participate more fully in Kenya’s digital economy. Thus, there is a clear argument that this partnership represents a significant step in narrowing Kenya’s digital divide and empowering communities
At the same time, however, buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) options have strong potential for opening up a still big – and potentially profitable – market for companies like Jumia and Watu.
