Leveraging an Innovative Payment Model to Improve Women’s Digital Inclusion

Mobile phones can enable economic and social empowerment by lowering communication costs and facilitating the flow of information. They have been shown to drive improvements in supply chain connectivity and job creation, bolster resilience to shocks through remittances, and expand access to other mobile services. As smartphone penetration grows in low- and middle-income countries, a new array of mobile use cases is becoming available to the poor. And yet, the gender gap in smartphone ownership in sub-Saharan Africa has increased from 22% in 2017 to 30% in 2022. In Kenya, where 95% of users report accessing the internet through their personal phone, a 2021 FinAccess survey found that women were nearly 9 percentage points less likely to have used the internet compared to men.

The high up-front cost of smartphone devices remains a primary barrier, especially for women. Loans offer one way to overcome these barriers, but it is often difficult for lenders to extend credit to low-income borrowers, who lack collateral or formal credit histories and therefore pose a risk of defaulting on their loans. While recent research indicates that a “pay-as-you-go” (PAYG) structure could be an effective means of lending to the large numbers of people in low- and middle-income countries with no credit history,  there is no evidence on how this structure might facilitate or inhibit women’s access to smartphones

In a new initiative, researchers at Inclusion Economics explore how an innovative pay-as-you-go smartphone financing platform can be leveraged to expand women’s access to and productive use of digital technology in Kenya.

Inclusion Economics researchers are partnering with a Kenya-based asset-financing platform that has expanded loan access, providing loans for smartphones and other productive assets to over 10 million customers across 5 sub-Saharan African countries. Loans are secured using lock-out technology, whereby the carrier can start and stop use of the phone remotely based on customer payments. The team is testing three forms of new flexible contracts, which are designed to accommodate the irregular and unpredictable income streams lower-income customers are more likely to have. In 2025, the team launched a randomized controlled trial with more than 13,000 recent smartphone customers in Kenya participating. The study tests whether the contract flexibility impacts customers’ ability to manage their debt, keep their phones unlocked, and productively use their devices. This flexibility may be especially important for women who have taken these loans and who, on average, are more likely to have informal and irregular sources of incomes and to be first-time smartphone owners. As a part of the study, the team is also testing marketing of these contracts, providing valuable information on how offering flexibility affects who selects into contracts. The study will conclude in late 2026.