Fintech Giant Mkopa has now reached over 5 million customers unlocking 1.5 billion dollars in credit across 5 markets in Africa including Kenya.

According to its 2024 Annual Impact Report that focused on how the company is deepening digital and financial inclusion across the continent, Mkopa announced that it has surpassed 5 million customers across Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa.

This is an upscale of two million customers  onboarded in the past one year and three months.

M-KOPA’s innovative model makes affordable smartphones embedded with financial services available to ‘Every Day Earners’ convenient for the majority of Africans who earn their income daily but struggle to afford smartphones and typically fail to qualify for conventional financial services.

The innovative Model allows customers to access a smartphone, gain entry to the digital economy with an affordable daily repayment model, which fits their daily income and cash flow.

Jesse Moore M-KOPA co-founder and Chief Executive Officer said by leveraging rich payments data and proprietary AI-driven analytics, M-KOPA builds a credit record for each customer which forms the foundation for a long-term financial relationship for lower cost digital loans, affordable data subscriptions and medical insurance.

“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,” said Moore Mkopa CEO.

The 2024 Annual Impact Report indicated that 92 percent of those sampled confirmed that Mkopa’s financing has made technology more affordable while 80 percent of customers reported an improved quality of life after accessing the company’s products.

“According to the World Bank, 75 percent of adults in sub-Saharan Africa remain financially excluded. To date, M-KOPA has supported its customer base with more than US $1.5 billion in financing,” he said.

“Restricted by lack of formal employment, credit scores, and collateral, they often cannot access traditional financial services such as credit bank accounts and savings,” added Moore.

In 2023 the firm opened the first smartphone assembly plant in Kenya where it launched its branded smartphone “X20”.