Data show that 55 per cent of Kenyans who use instalment-based phone loans are buying a smartphone for the first time.
The schemes let consumers put down a deposit and then clear the balance in daily, weekly or monthly instalments over an agreed term, and they are attracting mainly younger buyers, with 70 per cent of financed purchasers under 35 and most coming from rural and semi-urban areas.
Smartphone connections rose to 50.2 million by March 2026 from 48.7 million in December 2025, while a joint Kenya National Bureau of Statistics and Communications Authority survey found that 53.7 per cent of Kenyans aged three and above owned a mobile phone, with ownership at 64.6 per cent in urban areas versus 48.6 per cent in rural areas.
The GSMA identified handset affordability as the chief obstacle to wider smartphone uptake in Africa, and Samsung reported that financing accounted for 65 per cent of smartphone purchases in Kenya in 2026, up from 60 per cent in 2025.
George Kebaso, Head of EIP Business in Samsung’s Mobile Division, said more than six million devices were financed across East Africa in 2026, indicating an estimated year-on-year growth of between 50 and 60 per cent, with Kenya and Tanzania leading the market.
The average financing amount rose from about US$100 in 2025 to US$150 in 2026, a 50 per cent increase, and Samsung works with providers such as Watu, M-KOPA and Sun King; a typical example involves a KSh15,000 phone requiring a KSh3,000 deposit (20 per cent) and the remaining KSh12,000 spread over 12 to 16 months.
Samsung said the default rate within its device-financing ecosystem is below 10 per cent, did not disclose the total repayment amount including interest, noted that women make up roughly 45 per cent of repayments, and estimated that about seven million customers still need to move from 2G and 3G to 4G and smartphone use.
