MTN’s mobile money business in South Africa, known as MoMo, said on Thursday that it will make 4G and 5G smartphones available on credit to prepaid customers – without the need for background credit checks.

The “Handset Rent-to-Own” solution is aimed at getting millions of South Africans, many of whom still rely on outdated feature phones, to get connected with modern technology.

The phones will be made available for “as little as R10/day” through the MoMo app, with no credit checks or paperwork required, MTN said in a statement.

The move comes just two months after MTN South Africa announced plans to sell subsidised 4G smartphones costing as little R99 each.

“Powered by MTN’s trusted fintech platform in partnership with Airvantage, the service uses advanced AI-driven affordability assessments – with no payslip and no credit check history required. The process is smart, secure and tailored to the realities of South Africa’s informal and underbanked economy,” MTN said in Thursday’s statement.

“Once approved, customers choose a flexible payment plan – either three, six, nine or 12 months – and once payments are complete, the device is theirs to own, forever.”

The launch phase features 4G-enabled Samsung smartphones, with other brands to follow. Users must place their order in the MTN MoMo app, where they will pay a “small deposit”.

Under pressure

When MTN South Africa launched its R99 smartphone deal in May, CEO Charles Molapisi told TechCentral that the aim was to migrate millions of people still using 2G devices to more modern devices. South Africa’s operators are under pressure to reduce their reliance on legacy carrier technologies so that radio frequency spectrum can be freed up to deliver modern carrier technologies such as 4G and 5G.

MTN said it planned to roll out the subsidised phones to as many as 1.2 million of its prepaid customers.

“On the MTN network today, we have about 85% smartphone penetration, meaning there are some five or six million customers on the network who do not have smartphones,” said Molapisi. “When you zoom in on those customers, 60-70% of them are in our constant customer base, meaning they have been with us for 10-15 years – they are very loyal, but they cannot afford a smartphone. Those are the customers we are targeting.

Read: MTN to sell 4G smartphones for as little as R99

“There are four generations of technology (2G, 3G, 4G and 5G) in South African networks and that’s too many layers of technology to manage. You cannot migrate if you still have customers sitting on old technologies like 2G and 3G – and you can’t leave them behind either. So, what do you do? You have to find different funding models to promote financial inclusion and bring them along,” he said. – © 2025 NewsCentral Media

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