- Airtel Africa has entered into a strategic partnership with Mastercard and Samsung
- The offer to finance the purchase of devices across Kenya and 13 markets in monthly installments will first be available in Uganda from this month
With an eye on expanding its presence in Africa, Airtel Africa has entered into a strategic partnership with Mastercard and Samsung. The offer allows Customers on Airtel to buy Samsung devices and pay in flexible installment for up to 12 months. Airtel subscribers with clean transaction history will qualify for the financing.
The offer to finance the purchase of devices across Kenya and 13 markets in monthly installments will first be available in Uganda from this month. Once it gets regulatory approval, the service will be rolled out to other markets that include Tanzania, Rwanda, Kenya, Nigeria, DRC, Gabon, Malawi, Zambia, Madagascar, Seychelles, Chad, Niger and Congo Brazzaville.
Speaking about the innovative partnership, Raghunath Mandava, CEO of Airtel Africa said that it will help Airtel feature phone customers to upgrade to smartphones and pay with Airtel Money on flexible installment plans. This is expected to further strengthen the digital economy leading to additional opportunities for Africa’s entrepreneurs. Airtel added  that pay-on-demand users will  be able to access digital payments through MasterCard’s virtual card and MasterCard Quick Response (QR Codes) functionality on their Airtel mobile money app enabling them to make digital transactions.
It may be recalled that Airtel’s competitor Safaricom recently joined hands with Google in a programme for Kenyan users to acquire smartphones and make daily payments of Sh20.
