One million broke Kenyans tap Safaricom's smartphone financing scheme

The region's most profitable telco is under pressure to diversify its revenue streams from voice, short message services, cash transfers and payments.

The telco, part-owned by South Africa's Vodacom and Britain's Vodafone, is keen to create new revenue streams as its voice business matures.

Safaricom has consequently been seeking to capitalise on rising mobile internet use in the country.

"A lot of our consumers are still on 2G and to some extent 3G devices. That's the reason we are saying even if you have 4G coverage... you need to start improving access to devices," said Mr Ndegwa at a past event.

"It is an innovative way of allowing customers to get a device that they would otherwise not be able to afford. If you have an app, you can't use it on a 2G phone."

Data is one of Safaricom's fastest-growing revenue lines, and the telco hopes that increased smartphone usage will boost the bottom line.

Education or other uses

"We want to democratise the use of data, whether it's for education or other uses," said Mr Ndegwa.

Safaricom revealed last year it would target residences and commercial offices in areas that are not currently served by its fibre network after it rolled out its new high-speed internet.

The telco last year launched Kenya's first fifth-generation (5G) mobile internet services commercially after a successful pilot, making it the first mobile phone operator to offer the service in East Africa.

The 5G service is a central part of Safaricom's attempt to further expand its data business to counter slower growth in voice calls revenue.

[email protected]