Vodacom Tanzania's Head of Sales and Distributions, Consumer Business Unit, George Lugata (L), along with Laina Finance Ltd Managing Director Mrisho Shomari during the launch of new loan services for smartphones.

Vodacom Tanzania has partnered with Laina Finance to roll out a finance plan targeted at customers looking to purchase smartphone devices on credit.

In a statement the companies explained that Vodacom customers can apply for a smartphone loan for select devices at the company’s Vodacom shops nationwide on credit following an assessment.

“With the financing plan, customers can get a smartphone that worth up to TZA1m after a 40% initial deposit followed by flexible monthly instalments of up to 3 months through M-Pesa,” read an excerpt from the statement.

The companies reference Periodic TCRA reports which indicate a steady growth in both mobile and internet usage in the country, as internet penetration peaks 48%.

“This has resulted in an increase in smartphone penetration in the country but despite this growth, an estimated two fifths of the country’s population remain offline and are excluded from the socio-economic benefits of the internet. Bridging this digital divide is critical to catalyse Tanzania’s ambition of transforming from a historically agricultural economy to an increasingly knowledge-based, semi-industrialised middle-income economy by 2025,” the statement continues.

Mrisho Shomari, General Manager of Laina Finance Limited, added: “Access to affordable smartphones is the key to bridging this gap and ensuring every Tanzanians is connected to the internet. Our partnership with Vodacom Tanzania – the country’s leading telecom company -banks on our experience in financial services and expertise in technology to support their customers across the country to get affordable smartphones through flexible loans.”

To access the financing plan a customer has to consent to sharing their GSM usage data for Laina to run a credit assessment from credit bureaus to assess customers' creditworthiness and financing upper limit.

The customer then receives a shop locator SMS guiding them to where they can pick up the device.