Dealer targets local market with cheaper iPhones

Most Kenyan smartphone users have had to turn to Android phones. FILE PHOTO | NMG 

By JAMES KAHONGE

Summary

• goAfrica has partnered with Foxconn and iFP to ship reconditioned smartphones to the local market.
• The high cost of new gadgets has often locked the majority of Kenyans from owning the smartphone.
• Consequently, most Kenyan smartphone users have had to turn to Android phones.

Ordinary Kenyans can now afford to buy iPhones at lower prices after goAfrica, an online platform, partnered with Foxconn and iFP to ship reconditioned smartphones to the local market.

The smartphones are expected to retail at between 20 and 30 percent lower than what new smartphones cost in Apple Stores.

“We are offering quality products to the market at an affordable price,” said goAfrica general manager Boniface Munywoki.

The appetite for iPhones has grown steadily in the local market in the past few years, but the high cost of new gadgets has often locked the majority of Kenyans from owning the smartphone.

Consequently, most Kenyan smartphone users have had to turn to Android phones. It is this gap in the market that goAfrica hopes to plug with the used iPhones.

goAfrica is a business-to-business marketplace that enables buyers and suppliers worldwide to trade with buyers and suppliers in Africa.

Its partnership with iFP (or ifengpai), the only authorised reseller of pre-owned iPhones, will effectively make goAfrica the sole distributor of certified pre-owned iPhones in Kenya and the region.

According to goAfrica, the iPhones are sourced exclusively from Apple Stores through trade-ins by iFP in China, the second largest iPhone market after the United States.

The used iPhones are tested and reconditioned at Foxconn facilities. Foxconn, a Taiwanese multinational and the largest electronics contract manufacturer, also makes iPhones, iPads and iPods for Apple Inc.

Besides Apple products, Foxconn also manufactures a wide range of consumer electronic products for HP, Huawei, Lenovo, Microsoft and Sony.

Some of the iPhone models in stock include the iPhone SE, iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S Plus, 7 and 7 Plus. The phones come with a one-year warranty and can be serviced at an authorised Apple service centre in Nairobi.

‘‘Many Kenyans would love to own an iPhone, which sometimes pushes them to buy inauthentic gadgets from unscrupulous dealers,” said Mr Munywoki.