Samsung Z2 Coming Soon to South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya

Samsung has updated the Tizen Store terms, bringing in some few changes. Tizen Store is Samsung’s Tizen OS own app store where users of smartphones and other gadgets running the Tizen OS can access free apps and also buy paid apps. This recent update brings the function of buying paid apps from the Tizen store to users in Africa, specifically Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana and Kenya. Samsung had earlier listed South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya as part of countries where the Z2 will launch this year and since Tizen powered smartphones are not available yet in Africa, this can be taken as a confirmation that the Samsung Z2 will launch in these four African countries, maybe very soon.
The payment services on the Tizen app store make it easier for potential buyers in the four countries to buy apps by changing the cost to the equivalent in their local currency. The billing options are also coming in very flexible, with users having the option of paying via Credit card, Debit card and even Carrier billing. Carrier billing option will only be available in South Africa via Telkom S.A. for now but we should see that rolling in the other African countries soon but before then, users in Ghana and Kenya will get to pay via Mastercard, VISA card and Visa Electron debit or credit card. Nigeria based Tizen Store users can only pay via Mastercard and VISA Credit card, no debit card payment option.
Samsung is also adjusting the prices of the applications to the local currency in South Africa and it would reflect the recent exchange rate. The Tizen Store change will come into effect on August 26, 2016 and for the conversion of the apps prices to South African Rand, the exchange rate will be the rate as at August 25, 2016 and the adjusted price will be rounded down to the decimal point. There are maximum and minimum price limits though, for Credit Card, the minimum Price is 8.37 (ZAR) while the maximum Price is 8370.00(ZAR). While for Carrier Billing, the minimum price is 8.37 (ZAR), and the maximum price is 2000.00(ZAR). Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya Tizen Store users will access the price in US dollars.
This new policy also applies to apps registered after the price adjustment as their own prices will be set automatically by Flexible Price as soon as they are uploaded. In the event the seller locked the price, exchange rate won’t apply neither would the minimum and maximum price adjustment.
From the look of things, some of the changes such as prices in local currency, and carrier billing option will roll out to Tizen users in South Africa only but we expect those services to become available in Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya soon. It is also possible Samsung will extend its drag net to other African countries in the near future.
Tizen Store Apps Payment Services in Africa countries (Summary)