Known as ‘pay later’ or ‘buying on credit’, smartphone financing is a trend that is getting lots of attention these days, and Nigeria’s biggest telco, MTN, has entered the field too.
Partnering with Intelligra and M-kopa, two mobile device financing platforms, as well as Stanbic IBTC and SLOT distribution company, the service provider is offering payment plans for getting yourself the smartphone you’ve always needed.
According to a Techpoint Africa report, some plans will see you paying as low as NGN7,000 monthly. However, it gets as low as NGN3,700 if you choose to use M-kopa instead of Intelligra. In addition, you can spread payments over the course of six to twelve months. As a plus for choosing MTN’s financing offer, you get a data and voice call plan of up to 100GB and 250 minutes every month.
When we checked, some of the upfront payments covered nearly half the phone’s cost. And the eventual payments cost much more than what you would have paid if you bought the device at once. Curiously, the platforms are not revealing what the additional costs amount to.
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Qualification is based on your financial situation and relationship with MTN. Likely, this means that the your banking activity would be put under the microscope to see if you can meet up with the monthly payments. Since their is no credit score in Nigeria that you can use to gauge yourself, you may just have to apply first and wait to see if you get approved.
Other things you will need includes an active MTN phone number, a valid Means of Identification (NIN/Driver’s License), BVN, and a down payment.
Another benefit of using the financing service is that you get an automatic replacement if you lose your phone or break its screen within the period. Although, there are very few smartphone options available at this time, with high-end ones like iPhone 14 and Samsung Galaxy S22 not offered. In fact, the service tells you which devices are available on the plan, so, your choices are restricted from the get-go.
Several other such services exist already for Nigerians, perhaps, MTN is banking on its freebies to woo potential customers to choose it.
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