Pan-African fintech M-KOPA has reached 10 million customers across Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana, and South Africa, marking a major milestone in its journey from a solar financing startup to one of Africa’s leading providers of smartphone financing and digital financial services.
The achievement also highlights Nigeria as the company’s fastest-growing market, underscoring the rising demand for affordable smartphone financing in Africa’s largest economy.
Nigeria Leads M-KOPA’s Growth Story
According to M-KOPA, Nigeria became the fastest market in the company’s history to surpass one million customers, demonstrating the rapid adoption of its flexible financing model.
Unlike traditional lenders that rely on salary records or formal credit histories, M-KOPA focuses on serving “Every Day Earners”—including traders, artisans, transport operators, and small business owners who often remain excluded from conventional financial services.
Through affordable instalment payments, customers can acquire smartphones bundled with services such as insurance, device protection, and access to additional credit products.
Smartphones Are Becoming Financial Infrastructure
M-KOPA’s rapid expansion reflects a broader shift across Africa, where smartphones have evolved beyond communication devices into essential tools for financial inclusion.
Access to digital banking, mobile payments, e-commerce, online learning, remote work, and investment platforms increasingly depends on smartphone ownership.
However, rising inflation and increasing handset prices have placed smartphones beyond the reach of many consumers, making device financing an important bridge to digital participation.
By spreading payments over time, fintech companies like M-KOPA are enabling millions of Africans to access the digital economy without significant upfront costs.
Rapid Expansion Across Africa
Since pivoting into smartphone financing in 2020, M-KOPA has experienced remarkable growth.
The company took eight years to reach its first one million customers, but added the next nine million in just six years, illustrating the growing demand for embedded finance and alternative credit solutions.
M-KOPA says it now adds approximately 10,000 new customers every day across its five operating markets while maintaining an average annual revenue growth of 50% since entering the smartphone financing business.
Investing Beyond Financing
To support growing demand, M-KOPA has expanded its operational footprint beyond lending.
In 2023, the company established what it describes as Africa’s largest smartphone assembly facility in Kenya, employing more than 400 people and producing over 3.3 million smartphones to date.
Its reach is further supported by a network of more than 40,000 sales agents, enabling the company to serve customers in both urban and underserved communities.
Driving Financial Inclusion Through Technology
Commenting on the milestone, M-KOPA Co-founder and CEO Jesse Moore said the company’s success demonstrates that millions of underserved Africans have always been creditworthy but lacked financial products designed around their income patterns.
Rather than treating smartphones as consumer electronics, M-KOPA views them as gateways to financial inclusion, helping users access digital services that can improve productivity, increase income opportunities, and strengthen economic participation.
As competition in Africa’s device financing market continues to intensify, M-KOPA’s latest milestone reinforces the growing role of fintech companies in expanding access to credit and accelerating digital inclusion across the continent.
