M-KOPA has announced that it has reached the 5 million customer mark in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa. Two million of these customers have joined the network in the last 15 months.
M-KOPA’s innovative model brings affordable smartphones with integrated financial services to “everyday earners”: the vast majority of African adults who earn their living on a daily basis but struggle to afford smartphones and are generally ineligible for conventional financial services.
According to the World Bank, 75% of adults in sub-Saharan Africa remain financially excluded. To date, M-KOPA has supported its client base with over $1.5 billion in financing.
Starting with smartphone access, customers access the digital economy with an affordable daily repayment model that fits their daily income and cash flow and makes it easier to manage.
By leveraging rich payment data and proprietary AI-powered analytics, the fintech startup creates a credit file for each customer that forms the basis of a long-term financial relationship for low-cost digital loans, affordable data subscriptions, and health insurance.
According to Jesse Moore, co-founder and CEO of M-KOPA: “We are thrilled to welcome our 5 millionth customer to M-KOPA this month. The scale of our operations and our positive impact on customers drives us to work hard to go even further. We are just getting started; the opportunity for much greater impact and scale is right in front of us.”
M-KOPA also released its 2024 Impact Report this week, in which the company annually discloses its progress against key social and environmental impact metrics. As with previous reports, the 2024 fintech startup customer survey was conducted by a third-party firm – Dalberg Research.
Key highlights of the 2024 report include:
- 92% confirm that M-KOPA funding has made the technology more affordable.
- 80% of customers report an improved quality of life thanks to M-KOPA products.
- 70% of respondents credit M-KOPA with helping them achieve their financial goals, demonstrating the company’s contribution to financial empowerment.
- 62% use their M-KOPA product to generate revenue
The company has a major impact on improving digital access in Africa. Nearly 2 million customers are first-time mobile internet users and 40% are women.
M-KOPA also built the first and largest smartphone assembly plant in Kenya, which has produced over a million phones locally and further reduced the cost of entry.
As with previous reports, M-KOPA’s Board of Directors and management use the annual Impact Report to help shape the company’s future strategy.
Based on this year’s results, the fintech startup is working to further increase its percentage of female customers to 50%, reduce its carbon footprint by making circularity a core part of its smartphone supply chain, and continue to pioneer green products like electric motorcycles that contribute to the health and sustainability of the communities where it operates.
Nena Sanderson, Product Director at M-KOPA, notes: “Our products and services pave the way to prosperity for our customers and agents, enabling them to overcome financial challenges, generate revenue and move toward the future they desire.
Our impact extends beyond our customers, reaching their families and communities, and helping to build a more sustainable world.
Based in London, UK, M-KOPA now creates jobs for over 3,000 employees and 30,000 commission-based sales agents in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa.
The company has been recognized by the Financial Times as one of Africa’s fastest growing companies for the last 3 years, and by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential companies in the world for the last 2 years.
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