Access to mobile internet and smartphone ownership is becoming increasingly linked to poverty alleviation worldwide. Mobile internet usage in the world’s poorest 40% of countries has increased by 770 million since 2015, with stronger network connectivity giving users easier access to financial services, educational software and health care platforms. The GSMA estimates that between 2023-2030, $3.5 trillion can go to global GDP through increasing mobile internet accessibility to those who live in areas with network coverage but no personal device.

Given that 15% of the global population currently cannot afford a mobile phone package, where in the world’s poorest fifth of countries these cost an average of 51% of a user’s monthly income, rethinking smartphone financing is essential to reduce digital exclusion and poverty.

Current Difficulties in Developing Countries

While institutions such as the World Bank recognize how the digital divide perpetuates poverty in low to middle-income countries, their recommended solutions for remedying this involve substantial policy shifts such as subsidising device costs and tax exemptions for the cheapest devices.

While these are important steps to bridge the accessibility gap that exists for the world’s poorest, the political viability of these measures varies across developing countries with different political regimes, budgets and popular support. Rather than address the gap, varying adoption rates of these policies could actually increase inequality, as only a few choice nations benefit. A new, dynamic approach to smartphone affordability is necessary: one that is easily, globally scalable with low-adoption costs.

Enter Kistpay

Kistpay, a Pakistani-based and UAE-headquartered platform, is revolutionizing smartphone affordability through its market-oriented solution to mobile financing. It works on the principle of “buy now, pay later,” a system that lets customers take home a product immediately and spread payments over time. Unlike conventional versions of this, which usually demand credit scores, bank accounts or deposits, barriers that shut out much of the low-income population, Kistpay relies on Google-enabled device-locking technology. If a user defaults, the phone is temporarily disabled rather than repossessed. This lowers lender risk and keeps repayment incentives intact, widening access for those with no formal financial history.

Through partnerships with major telecoms providers such as Jazz and Telenor, Kistpay offers Shariah-compliant instalment plans starting from just a few dollars a month, showing how expanding smartphone affordability in the developing world is not only possible through subsidy but through a commercially viable, market-driven model.

Scalability and Success

Kistpay’s revolutionary technology currently operates across three continents, in countries as geographically and economically diverse as Thailand and Mexico. This bold mission statement drives the global reach, aiming to shrink the number of digitally detached citizens and facilitate the inclusion of the “next billion users” of smartphones. A commitment as ambitious as this, whether achievable or not, indicates that Kistpay intends to play an emboldened role in ending smartphone inaccessibility.

Kistpay has already taken bold steps towards this reality, focusing on regions where religion may inhibit the ability to take out interest-accruing loans. Here, it offers Shariah-friendly, zero-interest smartphone loans and acts as a vital lever in galvanising mobile adoption in previously overlooked communities. Key international institutions like the UNDP, recognized this groundbreaking work and signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Kistpay in 2024 focusing on fostering digital inclusion and enhancing connectivity in the Arab world.

Kistpay has also placed women’s inclusion at the heart of its mission – an essential component of any serious anti-poverty strategy. In Pakistan, where just 26% of women own a smartphone, its Women Empowerment Program has already reached more than 10,000 women since 2022, with a target of 25,000 by 2026. By combining female-staffed helplines, women-only outlets, financial literacy training and affordable instalment plans, Kistpay is not only bridging the digital gender gap but enabling women to grow businesses, boost household incomes and achieve greater independence.

A Digitally Inclusive Future

While Kistpay is no Google or Microsoft, it is doggedly staking its claim in the future of smartphone affordability in the developing world. Through an innovative business model and strong sense of social responsibility, Kistpay has already affected millions in its quest to democratise access to Tech. In doing so, it offers a glimpse of a digitally inclusive future where connectivity is not a privilege, but a pathway out of poverty.

– George Horberry

George is based in York, UK and focuses on Technology and Politics for The Borgen Project.

Photo: Flickr