Yesterday, it was known that Safaricom plans to launch its Ksh 20 a day 4G smartphone financing plan dubbed Lipa Mdogo Mdogo. The Lipa Mdogo Mdogo campaign, in partnership with Google, has been officially announced this morning.
It is aimed at helping bridge the digital divide in the country. According to Safaricom, 4G smartphone penetration on their customer base stands at 17% way lower than its general smartphone penetration in Kenya which stands at 42%.
The telco aims to take advantage of its vast 4G mobile network coverage, which according to the telco’s CEO, Peter Ndegwa, covers over 77% of the population and 2G and 3G covers 95%.
“Our plan is to make to available to every Kenyan by ensuring that as many Kenyans as possible can use a 4G device for the first time without a significant dent on their wallet,” said Ndegwa.
By partnering with Google, the two aim to remove the main barrier to mobile internet adoption – affordability. The plan is to add a million 4G customers in this financial year.
Devices Available Under The Safaricom Lipa Mdogo Mdogo smartphone financing plan
At the launch, Safaricom announced that you will be able to get it’s Neon Ray Pro 4G phone by paying Ksh 1000 as a down payment then paying for the rest little by little in daily instalments of Ksh 20.
You can also choose to pay on a weekly basis using the pre-installed Lipa Mdogo Mdogo app. Currently, only one device is available with flexible financing but Safaricom’s CEO says this is just a starting point.
So, maybe — just maybe — in the future, Safaricom may avail more devices apart from their own under the program. Remember the mission is to upgrade a million 2G feature phone users to 4G.
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