Egoras Technologies Ltd., in partnership with Airtel Nigeria, is launching an artificial intelligence-powered smartphone designed to turn millions of informal retailers into digital businesses, which could reshape the way small and medium-sized businesses access payments, data and enterprise tools in Africa’s largest economy.
Dubbed the “Cube Phone,” the device bundles free Internet access for business use, a built-in contactless payment terminal, and a suite of AI-powered business tools into a single Android device priced at 240,000 naira ($150). The product is scheduled to go on sale on April 28th, and will be distributed nationwide through Egolas showrooms.
The move comes as Nigeria struggles to digitize its vast informal economy. According to the company’s data, less than 8% of an estimated 40 million small and medium-sized businesses accept digital payments. Despite the rapid growth of fintech, high device costs, expensive mobile data, and data privacy concerns have slowed adoption, and most transactions are cash-based.
Also read: PoS growth slows as Nigeria payments market enters new phase
Egoras CEO Ugozi Harry said the company’s goal is not to compete in the crowded smartphone market, but to remove structural barriers that prevent merchants from making their first digital sales.
“We’ve eliminated data costs, simplified payments, and embedded intelligence into the device itself. The phone is just a delivery mechanism,” Harry said.
At the core of this service is a zero-rated connectivity agreement with Airtel, which allows all activities on the CubeOS platform, payments, applications, and AI interactions on the phone to be performed without data charges. The company said that unlike the typical telecom fair use model, there are no caps or restrictions and it can effectively reduce operating expenses, which is critical for small and medium-sized businesses, which often spend between N5,000 and N10,000 monthly on mobile data.
This pricing structure could be disruptive in a market where cost remains a major barrier to digital adoption. Eliminating recurring data fees can accelerate merchant onboarding faster than traditional fintech incentives.
The Cube Phone also functions as a payment acceptance device. Each unit ships with 100 contactless Cube cards, which are battery-free NFC cards with an expected lifespan of up to 10 years, that merchants can distribute to their customers. Transactions only require a password and do not require the use of a smartphone or app on the customer’s part.
Egolas is betting on network effects. Each phone effectively seeds a micropayment ecosystem of 100 users. As adoption continues, we expect more participants to purchase their own devices and the network to grow organically. The company expects to have 1 million phones and 100 million cards in circulation within the first year.
This device further integrates the AI business suite and provides tools typically out of reach for small businesses. Features include contract creation and compliance support, financial tracking and reporting, workflow automation, and basic human resources management. The tool supports multiple Nigerian languages, including Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, and Pidgin, a feature aimed at improving accessibility in underserved markets.
Egolas added that all data and AI interactions will be encrypted and stored on the device using a blockchain-based architecture, which is significantly different from mainstream cloud-based models. Transactions and records are handled without any centralized intermediary and Airtel acts only as a transport layer.
This approach addresses growing concerns about data sovereignty and privacy, especially among small business owners who are wary of sharing sensitive financial information with large platforms.
Cube Phone enters a competitive but fragmented environment. While companies like Moniepoint and OPay dominate merchant payments, hardware manufacturers like Tecno Mobile and Itel Mobile are focused on affordability. Mobile money platforms provide trading services but rely on paid data and centralized infrastructure.
Egoras positions the Cube Phone as a full-stack alternative that combines hardware, connectivity, payments, AI tools, and privacy in one device. If this model is successful, it could challenge multi-service approaches that force small businesses to juggle separate tools and subscriptions.
The company said discussions are underway with other carriers such as MTN Nigeria and Globalcom to expand zero-rating access beyond Airtel’s network.
For Airtel, the partnership offers a potential path to deepen enterprise adoption and protect market share in a price-sensitive environment. For Egoras, the stakes are even higher. We can prove that bundling connectivity, payments, and AI into one device can unlock Nigeria’s largely untapped digital commerce infrastructure.
Whether retailers adopt this model at scale will depend on its execution, trust, and sustainability of the zero-cost promise. But if it works, the Cube Phone could compress years of gradual fintech adoption into a single hardware cycle, turning a basic smartphone into the operating system for Nigeria’s informal economy.
