M-KOPA

M-KOPA, headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya and with offices in the UK, Uganda, Nigeria, and Hong Kong, is the pioneer and global leader of "pay-as-you-go" connected asset consumer financing. 

Since its commercial launch in October 2012, M-KOPA has connected more than 950,000 off-grid homes in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, and Tanzania to solar power, and over 1.3M to life improving products. We continue to reach 1,000 new customers each day.

The success of M-KOPA (M= mobile, KOPA= to borrow) stems from making life-enhancing products affordable to low-income households on a pay-per-use instalment plan. Customers acquire solar systems or smartphones for a small deposit and then purchase daily "credits" for US $0.50-$1.00, often less than the price of traditional kerosene lighting for solar customers.

After one year of payments, customers own their new asset outright and can upgrade to more products and financial services.

As a result of this innovative approach to solving energy poverty, we have… 

• Issued more than 1,000,000 micro-loans to unbanked Africans to purchase solar lighting, TVs, fridges, smartphones, cash loans, and more; 
• Avoided 1.8 million metric tonnes of CO2 emissions;
• Helped children double their study hours at home with electrical lighting and given them the ability to access study materials with the internet;
• Provided more than 100,000 people to harness the internet for information; learning, social and income generation;
• Empowered customers to save >$400 million cumulatively. 

M-KOPA employs over 1,000 full time staff and sells through a network of an additional 3,500 direct sales agents and retail outlets. It has a rapidly expanding range of innovative products that help upgrade people’s lives and is also expanding into other high potential new markets.

M-KOPA has been recognized for its pioneering business model and scale, notably being selected as Forbes magazine’s top 50 companies changing the world, recognised by Fast Company for our ‘World Changing Idea’, winner of the 2015 Zayed Future Energy Prize, as well as selected the top New Energy Pioneer at the 2014 Bloomberg New Energy Finance awards, the 2013 FT/IFC Excellence in Sustainable Finance Award and most recently, listed in the Fortune Impact 20 companies of 2020.