M-KOPA’s 10× growth in the last five years only scratches 1% of Africa’s market -Jesse Moore
M-KOPA has grown tenfold in the past five years, yet CEO Jesse Moore says this barely represents 1% market penetration, emphasising the enormous headroom in Africa’s financial services landscape.
Speaking at Semafor’s Next 3 Billion summit in New York, Moore explained that even replicating the company’s current five-year growth trajectory would still capture only a fraction of the opportunity.
“If we grow the same amount in the next five years as we did in the last five years, then we will have achieved 1% saturation of our addressable market,” he said.
Founded in 2011, M-KOPA began by selling solar kits on a pay-as-you-go basis and has since evolved into a smartphone financing and digital credit platform. Its 2024 Impact Report shows it has surpassed 5 million customers across Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana, and South Africa, unlocking more than US$1.5 billion in credit.
In just 15 months, the company added 2 million customers — evidence of accelerating adoption of its daily micropayment model. TechCrunch reports that M-KOPA is also on track to reach US$400 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR), while maintaining stable repayment rates despite inflationary and currency headwinds.
Moore attributes this momentum to the company’s ability to serve Africa’s “everyday earners” — people in the informal economy who often lack access to banks and formal credit. By aligning repayment schedules with small, regular cash flows, M-KOPA not only enables customers to afford smartphones and solar kits but also helps them build a digital credit history that unlocks insurance, data bundles, and small loans.
“There’s no shortage of demand if you can crack these business models,” Moore stressed. “The challenge is scaling sustainably.”
Moore contrasted Africa’s trajectory with markets weighed down by legacy infrastructure. He recalled how Canadian telecoms in 2008 clung to landline investments, slowing mobile adoption. By comparison, he said, countries like Kenya and Nigeria “go a mile a minute right into new technologies”, leapfrogging directly to mobile money, solar financing, and digital credit.
The Bigger Picture
Africa is home to 1.4 billion people, yet accounts for just 2% of global digital commerce, according to Paystack CEO Shola Akinlade.
M-KOPA’s story demonstrates how even fast-scaling companies remain at the early stages of Africa’s fintech revolution — with billions still underserved and the vast majority of the market untapped.
