M-KOPA has announced that it has surpassed 5 million customers across Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana, and South Africa. Two million of these customers have been onboarded in the past 15 months. To date, M-KOPA has supported its customer base with more than USD 1.5 billion in financing.
M-KOPA’s model makes affordable smartphones embedded with financial services available to the wide majority of African adults who struggle to afford smartphones and typically fail to qualify for conventional financial services. According to the World Bank, 75% of adults in sub-Saharan Africa remain financially excluded.
Starting with smartphone access, customers gain entry into the digital economy with an affordable daily repayment model, which fits their daily income and cash flow. By leveraging payment data and proprietary AI-driven analytics, M-KOPA builds a credit record for each customer. This data forms the foundation for a long-term financial relationship for lower-cost digital loans, affordable data subscriptions, and medical insurance.
M-KOPA also published its 2024 Impact Report this week, in which the company annually releases its progress against key social and environmental impact metrics. As with prior reports, the 2024 survey of M-KOPA customers was undertaken by a third-party company, Dalberg Research.
As with prior reports, M-KOPA’s board and management use the annual impact report to help shape forward company strategy. Based on this year’s findings, M-KOPA is working to further increase its percentage of female customers to 50%, to reduce its carbon footprint, and to continue pioneering green products like electric motorbikes.
With its headquarters in London, UK, M-KOPA now creates employment for more than 3,000 staff and 30,000 commission-based sales agents across 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 past 3 years, and by Time Magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential Companies globally for the past 2 years.
Commenting on the milestone, M-KOPA co-founder and CEO Jesse Moore said, “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 is what keeps us working hard to go even further. We’re just getting started; the opportunity for much larger impact and scale is right in front of us.”