NAIROBI —- Demand for Pay-As-You-Go financing for products in the East African Market is set to skyrocket in 2022 as more consumers opt for alternative payment solutions as opposed to cash first payment.
Latest data from Angaza, the leading provider of sales and customer management technology for last mile distributors, shows that despite an increase in demand for sophisticated products like smartphones and TVs, the majority of consumers are unable to pay for these items upfront.
The Angaza Customer Success Director Peter Thuo says the Pay-As-You-Go model shows great potential to help consumers in emerging markets access products they previously could not afford through flexible payment terms.
“Pay-as-you-go (PAYGo) financing has in the past been used to help more low-income consumers in emerging markets access basic services. We are now seeing a paradigm shift as more middle income earners are seeking this financing model in a bid to access more sophisticated durable products like smartphones, TVs and fridges that they cannot pay for upfront,” he said.
The model also supports distribution businesses in selling any product to reflect their consumers’ unique needs. With the financing model, consumers who cannot afford to pay for a product upfront can choose to pay a distributor in partial, affordable installments over an agreed period of time. These partial payments are either made until the product is paid off and the consumer owns the product or on a continuous basis. In the case of a metered product, if the consumer fails to make an installmental payment, the product can be configured to automatically shut down until payment is made.
“This ability to make installment payments on time creates a financial “ladder” for consumers to increase their creditworthiness and access opportunities to finance larger, more complex products over time. Smartphones, TVs, laptops, refrigerators, clean cookstoves, and motorbikes are the most sought after products for this model,” he said.
To increase access to these in-demand products, Angaza has expanded beyond Pay-As-You-Go solar products. The firm has partnered with over 25 manufacturers, including Burn Manufacturing, Samsung, NuovoPay and SureChill, to provide distributors with the opportunity to sell clean cookstoves, smartphones, and other transformative products on the Angaza Hub.
Furthermore, Angaza has partnered with over 60 mobile money providers across 25 countries to make payments for products convenient for consumers and to enable cashless operations for distributors.
“The option of mobile money has led to a significant decrease in cash usage over the past few years, enabling consumers to pay at any time, from anywhere while saving distributors the cost of physically collecting payments. We are very excited about distributors’ strong interest in the Angaza platform to get transformative products like smartphones, electronics, and cookstoves into the hands of millions of consumers around the world,” explained Thuo.
According to a Mckinsey report, about 60 percent of consumers say they are likely to use Point Of Sale financing which includes Pay As You Go services over the next six to 12 months.
“Additionally, merchants are seeing value in these solutions, as they enhance cart conversion, increase average order value, and attract new, younger consumers to the merchants’ platforms. However, the incremental impact of such solutions varies by merchant size and category,” the report states.
In 2020, South Africa was the world biggest country in Buy Now, Pay Later Financing according to Statista.com. Nigeria is also in the world top 10 countries.
Other countries in the Top 10 include United Arab Emirates, India, Sweden, Peru, Turkey, Australia, France, Netherlands, and New Zealand.
Last year the firm received Sh1.3 billion in Series B financing to support efforts to scale customer service and commercial business teams, primarily located in Nairobi, Kenya.
