MTN Nigeria has announced that it would follow up its 5G deployment with an initiative that will allow more Nigerians to acquire 5G-enabled handsets.
Nigerians will now be able to purchase smartphones with ease, according to MTN, thanks to a financing program for smartphones that is sponsored by Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) like Samsung, TECNO, Nokia, Infinix, and iTel, among others.
Experts in the field have already noted that a significant obstacle to the adoption of 5G in Nigeria is the high cost of smartphones, particularly those that support 5G.
At a press conference on Wednesday in Lagos, MTN stated that it has found this to be a significant difficulty. It stated that this influenced its decision to collaborate with Intelligra, an open platform for smartphone financing in Nigeria, the OEMs, Stanbic IBTC Bank, and the famous gadget retail outlet, Slot, to own smartphones and pay over time with no upfront investment.
The statements made
Adia Sowho, chief marketing officer of MTN Nigeria, remarked during a press conference that many Nigerians now use their smartphones as computers. Unfortunately, many people are unable to afford these devices due to their exorbitant price tags. Currency fluctuations, shortages of chipsets, and inflation are some of the factors that keep the price of phones rising.
She continued by pointing out that there are several difficulties with the current financing plans, such as high interest rates and up-front initial deposits.
In January 2022, we started working with Intelligra. Since then, we have established over 200 channel locations where customers can walk in and purchase smartphones with no initial deposit and pay for them over time using airtime. More than 20,000 devices have been funded through this project. With the arrival of 5G, MTN is strengthening its partnership with Intelligra to promote the growth of 5G mobile devices.
While adding additional stores, especially in the North, we hope to reach 1,000 units of devices per day transactions by 2023,” she noted.
In a separate speech, Mr. Tayo Ogundipe, the chief executive officer of Intelligra, stated that smartphone financing is a practice that is used in many developed nations and allows consumers to buy any device of their choosing and pay over time. “With our smartphone financing program, we aim to empower more individuals to possess smart devices, not only in Nigeria, but across Africa,” he stated.
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Things to be aware of about the MTN 5G
- In Nigeria, MTN is the first and only network provider to have introduced 5G, with its commercial debut taking place in September of this year.
- With the rollout, Nigeria joined South Africa and Kenya as the third African nation to use the technology.
- With far faster speeds and lower latency than the current 4G technology used by all network providers in the nation, users can access the things they care about almost immediately, and downloads only take seconds as opposed to minutes.
- However, many Nigerians who presently use 4G phones would need to switch to 5G-compatible models in order to get the 5G service.
- The 3.5GHz 5G spectrum license was awarded to MTN and Mafab Communications following an auction held by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in December 2021.
- Mafab has until January 2023 to roll out its service, per an extension given to it by the Nigerian Communications Commission, whereas MTN has already begun.
