Africa-centric asset financing platform, M-KOPA, has announced surpassing five million customers across Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa with two million of these customers coming on board in the past 15 months.

M-KOPA co-founder and CEO, Jesse Moore, who made the announcement, said the platform’s model has made affordable smartphones embedded with financial services available to ‘Every Day Earners’, the wide majority of African adults who earn their income daily but struggle to afford smartphones and typically fail to qualify for conventional financial services.

“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,” Moore said.

“To date, M-KOPA has supported its customer base with more than US $1.5 billion in financing. Starting with smartphone access, customers gain entry to the digital economy with an affordable daily repayment model, which fits their daily income and cash flow and makes it easier to manage.

“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.”

Also speaking on the milestone,
M-KOPA’s Chief Product Officer Nena Sanderson, said:

“Our product and services build pathways to prosperity for our customers and agents, enabling them to overcome financial setbacks, generate income and progress towards the futures they aspire to.

“Our impact extends beyond our customers, reaching their families and communities, and contributing to building a more sustainable world.”

E-mobility startup, Ampersand, has entered into a partnership with CrossBoundary Energy to power two-wheeler (E2W) electric motorbikes with solar energy in Kenya.

Ampersand assembles and finances electric motorcycles that cost less to buy and operate, and perform better than the five million petrol motorcycle taxis in use across East Africa, while CrossBoundary Energy is a leading developer, owner, and operator of distributed renewable energy solutions for businesses.

The centres which will be strategically located in different parts of Nairobi, will see Ampersand also managing the battery maintenance and changing station operations, while CrossBoundary Energy will pilot financing and owning charging infrastructure and batteries at the swap stations.

Hezbon Mose, Kenya country director at Ampersand who spoke on the partnership, said the pilot project will consist of 36 electric charging units and 150 lithium-ion batteries suitable for E2W vehicles, charged by a 37kWp solar PV system.

“The availability of reliable, affordable charging infrastructure is essential to scaling our operations and meeting the growing demand for e-mobility in Kenya,” Mose said.

“With CrossBoundary Energy’s solution, we are confident we can expand faster and more efficiently, bringing our e-bikes to more riders across Kenya and East Africa.

“By leveraging solar power this expansion will be even more sustainable, cutting carbon emissions faster,” he added.