TECNO, itel phones now available through Safaricom Lipa Mdogo Mdogo

Back in November of 2021, we wrote about Safaricom’s plan to bring more expensive devices to their Lipa Mdogo Mdogo plan which has for a long while only featured budget devices – the Neon brand of Phones. This has now been officially confirmed by Safaricom and you can now get a couple of TECNO and itel phones through the program.

The company has announced it has partnered with Google and TECNO Mobile, and itel, to enable Kenyans access more 4G devices under the Lipa Mdogo Mdogo financing plan. This means we may see even more smartphones under the financing plan including Infinix devices. We may even see devices tailor-made for the plan later on if things work out well.

For now however, the devices you can pick up through the plan are:

1. itel A24 – with a deposit of KES 500
2. TECNO Spark 7 – with a deposit of KES 3,000
3. TECNO CAMON 17 – with a deposit of KES 5,000

The remaining balance is then paid through flexible daily, weekly, or monthly instalments. You will remember that when Lipa Mdogo Mdogo was introduced, the company – offered and continues to offer – daily payments of as little as KES 20 a day.

Safaricom explains that their partnership with Google allows all the 4G devices on device financing plan to come pre-loaded with a suite of Google Apps designed to give users a great smartphone experience.

The phones also come with 1GB of free data awarded at the point of purchase. That’s not all, every time you make an instalment payment, you will also get 50MB valid for 24 hours.

How to acquire a phone through Safaricom Lipa Mdogo Mdogo Device Financing:

• Visit a Safaricom Shop or Dealer outlet
• Or Dial *544# and Select Option 8 – Lipa Mdogo Mdogo
• Pay the required deposit for the phone – this varies between phones
• Pay the remaining balance in daily, weekly, or monthly instalments

“Lipa Mdogo Mdogo has seen over 500,000 Kenyans upgrade from 2G devices to quality and affordable 4G smartphones. Through this partnership, we seek to meet the varying needs of our customers by increasing the selection of devices available under the world-first device-financing plan,” said Peter Ndegwa, Safaricom CEO.

“This project is in line with our goals as Transsion in the emerging markets. We are a key stakeholder in digital disruption, and we continue coming up with new ways to transform lives through inclusivity across all consumer spectrums and ensure smartphone penetration all over the country. We want Kenyans to have internet accessibility through quality devices that meet their evolving needs and expectations,” said Ray Fang, Country Manager TECNO Kenya.

“Android’s goal has always been to democratize access by bringing the power of computing to everyone. The uptake of Lipa Mdogo Mdogo since its launch in 2020 is proof that affordability continues to be a key barrier of entry into the digital world. We are pleased to extend this partnership to enable more Safaricom users to take advantage of the opportunities that exist online,” said Mariam Abdullahi – Director, Platform Partnerships, Android and Play Africa.