Airtel Uganda has launched the new Airtel Kwata Essimu initiative in partnership with Samsung, Asante Financial Services Group and Mastercard to increase the number of internet subscribers through this action in Uganda. The pay on-demand service that was launched yesterday in an event at Kampala Serena Hotel will increase access to the internet by creating affordability for smartphones while providing smartphone financial services.
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The Airtel Kwata Essimu initiative will increase connectivity to individuals, micro, small and medium enterprises across the country by solving one of the biggest problems in Uganda and that is the ability to afford a smartphone. Kwata Essimu slogan means ‘have a phone’ in English which fits perfectly with this new effort that focuses on making sure every Ugandan can afford and have a smartphone.
Even when internet rates go down, smartphone prices rarely ever go down leaving out the groups of people who cannot afford.
Since the initiative aims at creating affordability in partnership with Samsung, a few Samsung smartphones will be made available for customers to access through loans which are; Samsung A01, A3 Core and A11. These particular smartphones can be bought at Airtel customer service centres and given at loans with the customer paying some money upfront. Another great discount is that they come with 500 MB loaded and customers will be eligible for 100% bonus on daily, weekly, and monthly data bundles loaded.
Airtel Kwata Essimu comes with flexible payment plans
Manoj Murali, the Managing Director at Airtel Uganda revealed that this would facilitate high purchasing speeds of Samsung phones at lower costs while giving customers the opportunity to distribute the payments over time.
| Device model | A3 Core | A01 | A11 |
| Initial instalment | UGX 152,550 | UGX 173,550 | UGX 243,550 |
| Monthly instalment | UGX 48,000 | UGX 54,000 | UGX 72,000 |
| Weekly instalment | UGX 11,200 | UGX 12,600 | UGX 16,800 |
| Daily instalment | UGX 1,600 | UGX 1,800 | UGX 2,400 |
| Payment period | 12 months | 12 months | 12 months |
The smartphone credit financing services provided through the Airtel Kwata Essimu will be the ability to pay a certain amount of money upfront when an Airtel customer tries to buy any of the eligible smartphones. The customer can then pay up the rest of the amount over a certain period of time as set by the telecommunications company.
Customers will choose a loan repayment plan of their choice which can be 3 months, 6 months, 9 months or even 12 months. You can dial *284*49# to check whether you are eligible for the Kwata Essimu offer.
The event was attended by bosses from other telecommunication companies and several VIPs like UCC Boss Engineer Irene Kaggwa. The Minister for ICT and National Guidance Judith Nabakooba was also in attendance and made some notable remarks.
The Minister said that the number of internet subscribers has grown since 2019 from 26.7 million subscribers to 28.4 million subscribers by the end of March 2020. She said, “This translates into a total growth of 1 million subscribers and a quarter to quarter growth of 7%.”
Despite the government’s investment in the National Backbone Infrastructure as a means to lower the cost of internet for the average Ugandan, the cost of smartphones still hinders many people today from accessing the internet. She commended initiatives like the Airtel ‘kwata essimu’ for making efforts to see that access to smartphones is increased while creating affordable rates for users.
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“Our mobile money services are changing customers’ lives across Uganda. This innovative partnership will help Airtel feature phone customers upgrade to smartphones and pay with Airtel Money on flexible instalment plans. This opens up the digital economy and creates additional opportunities for Uganda’s entrepreneurs.” said the Managing Director of Airtel Uganda, Manoj Murali.
The Director of Products at Samsung, Charles Kimani said, “Samsung is proud to be the provider of world-class devices with an end-to-end security platform with always-on protection. This partnership will benefit the people across Africa starting with Uganda and will create affordable payment plans to access Samsung devices. There is so much growth opportunity in the region and we believe that this partnership will help accelerate economic growth in the mobile industry.”
Telecommunication companies continue to innovate ways for more Ugandans to gain further access to smartphones which in turn would make internet subscription numbers go up. Last year in December, MTN announced a similar plan, the Pay Mpola Mpola plan for her customers where they could buy certain devices and pay for them in 6 months. This just like Airtel’s initiative had the same goal of increasing access to smartphones.