All the M-Kopa Phones you can get in Kenya, Uganda & Nigeria in 2021
We’ve already covered a couple of things about M-Kopa on this site. The company offers device financing allowing for a one-time deposit and daily instalments before the phone finally becomes yours.
Early this year, we had an article arguing against the program because of the crazy markups the company enjoys. Profits can sometimes be up to 200% for a single device. For example an KES 8,799 phone would end up costing a customer KES. 18,000 last year.
M-Kopa gave a response to us saying, “customers that are struggling with payments can return the phone within 30 days and get a full deposit refund, or within 30 – 90 days for a 50% deposit refund.”
The company has since removed pricing details (for Kenya and Uganda) on their website. So, we can’t be very sure on the terms of payment should you wish to pick up any of the devices. However, based on the 2019/20 terms, we still expect daily instalments to be around KES 60 for a whole year.
M-Kopa Phones you can get in Kenya in 2021:
These are the currently listed phones you can get from the company if you’re in Kenya:
If we get any details on the amount required as deposit, and the daily, weekly or monthly instalments required, we will have a table below on the initial versus final cost, as we did in 2020, before M-Kopa pulled that information away.
M-Kopa Phones you can get in Nigeria in 2021:
These are the ones listed for those in Nigeria:
In this country, M-Kopa is clear on the initial deposit needed, and the instalments you will be making, plus the final cost of the device. In this country, instalments can run either for 4 months or for 6 months (nothing yearly), with monthly or weekly payments. There’s no mention of daily instalments.
Here’s a breakdown of the prices of the devices if acquired immediately, and if paid for in instalments in Nigeria:
As you can see, in Nigeria, the profits aren’t as incredulous as they’re in Kenya. A phone that you’d get for 82,000 Naira (approx KES 22,500), goes for 96,000 Naira (approx KES. 26,000) with a 4 month repayment plan. Compare that to Kenya’s plan in 2020 where the Nokia 2.2 for KES 10,200 would end up costing KES 22,799!
M-Kopa Phones you can get in Uganda in 2021:
As listed, on M-Kopa’s Ugandan version of the site, these are the phones you can pick up:
Uganda is the country where M-Kopa has listed the most number of smartphones for financing. Similar to the Kenyan side, the company hasn’t provided any details on how much the phones would cost, or even a breakdown of the deposit and instalments customers will need to make.
That’s it for the devices you can get. It seems currently only Nokia and Samsung are onboard with M-Kopa’s financing plans. These phones will come with an app that will lock you out from accessing the phone should instalments not be made. M-Kopa has said before that once fully paid for, the app goes and you get to use and have the phone as yours.
We hope to see M-Kopa become clear on payment plans in all the different markets where they operate. If they can do it in Nigeria, they should do it all over. We also hope to see fair markups across all the markets they operate in.
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