Devices & Platforms

Credit Direct to finance Vivo smartphone sales in Nigeria

Credit Direct to finance Vivo smartphone sales in Nigeria

Nigerian finance firm Credit Direct says it has signed an MoU with Chinese handset maker Vivo Nigeria to make the company’s smartphones more affordable.

Under the MoU – which was signed last Friday and announced on Monday – Credit Direct customers will be able to pay 20% up front for a Vivo smartphone, with the remaining balance payable over six months.

Credit Direct said the financing arrangement is designed to remove the single biggest barrier to smartphone ownership in Nigeria: the requirement to pay the full purchase price up front.

Credit Direct estimates there are around 120 million smartphone users in Nigeria. The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) counted 152.4 million mobile internet users as of February 2026, which works out to just shy of 63% of the population. According to a GSMA survey published in September 2025, smartphone affordability was cited as the biggest barrier to mobile internet usage in Nigeria.

"Nigeria has millions of smartphone users, but the gap between those who are connected and those who are not remains wide, and the primary reason for that gap is access to capital,” said Credit Direct MD and CEO Chukwuma Nwanze in a statement.

Nwanze said its Vivo partnership is structured specifically to address that constraint, enabling customers to own a smartphone without disrupting their monthly finances.

The partnership gives Credit Direct's customer base access to Vivo's retail network of over 600 stores across 25 states. The two companies are targeting sales of over 200,000 devices in the first year.

“Vivo has built a strong mobile product over the years, and Credit Direct has been providing financing to people who have been shut out of the formal financial system for years. What this partnership does is bring those two realities together,” Nwanze said.

“Instalment-based device purchasing was something we had explored before, but it did not come together at the time,” added Vivo Nigeria CEO Toni Liu. “With Credit Direct's backing and infrastructure, we are confident this will be different.”

According to figures from StatiSense released in February, Vivo ranks ninth in Nigeria’s smartphone market with just 1.37% market share. Tecno tops the list with 18.92% market share, followed by Infinix (16.75%), Samsung (15.21%) and Apple (14.06%). Xiaomi, Itel, Oppo and Huawei also rank ahead of Vivo in Nigeria.



More Articles you may be Interested in...