M-KOPA, an emerging market fintech platform, is reshaping retail credit and workforce participation in Nigeria by leveraging smartphone financing as the foundation of one of the country’s fastest-growing informal economy platforms.
The Nigerian subsidiary of M-KOPA this week released its inaugural Impact Report, disclosing that it has unlocked N320 billion in credit for over one million customers since launching locally in 2019. In doing so, Nigeria has emerged as the company’s fastest-growing market globally, and the quickest to surpass the million-customer threshold.
Credit as an on-ramp to productivity
Nigeria’s informal economy accounts for a significant share of employment and output, yet remains structurally excluded from traditional financial services. Irregular income streams, lack of collateral and limited credit histories have historically restricted access to bank lending.
M-KOPA’s approach has been to design credit products around the economic rhythms of this segment. By offering flexible smartphone financing, often with affordable deposits and instalment-based repayments, the company lowers the entry barrier to digital participation.
The report indicates that 77 per cent of customers use their smartphones or digital loans to generate income. Meanwhile, 75 per cent report earning more since accessing the platform. For long-term customers, 81 per cent say their household expenses have improved.
These figures show that the financed smartphone functions as a productive asset rather than a consumption luxury. Traders manage supply chains via messaging platforms, promote goods on social media, receive transfers digitally and access online financial services. In effect, device ownership becomes a gateway to commercial formalisation.
Notably, 290,000 customers were first-time smartphone users. In macroeconomic terms, that represents a substantial expansion of Nigeria’s digitally enabled labour pool. As the country pushes deeper into a cash-lite and platform-driven economy, the ability to connect, transact and market digitally has become foundational for small enterprises.
Babajide Duroshola, general manager of M-KOPA Nigeria, describes the development as a reflection of latent potential. When everyday earners are given access to tools aligned with their earning patterns, he argues, they convert that access into income stability and long-term progress.
“Nigeria represents extraordinary potential, and we’re proud that it has become M-KOPA’s fastest-growing market. Our Impact Report shows that when Every Day Earners gain access to the right digital and financial tools, they use them to create stability and long-term progress for their families. This is about access that unlocks opportunity and sustained prosperity,” Durosola stated.
Equally significant is the scale and structure of the company’s agent network. Nigeria now leads all M-KOPA markets in agent performance, with 11,000 active direct sales agents nationwide.
From a labour market perspective, this network represents a decentralised employment ecosystem. Nearly all agents (99 per cent) report increased earnings, while 56 per cent accessed their first income opportunity through the platform.
In a country facing persistent youth unemployment and underemployment, such figures underscore the growing relevance of platform-based work. Agents are responsible for customer acquisition, onboarding and ongoing engagement, effectively operating as last-mile financial intermediaries.
For individuals like Adewunmi, who joined shortly after childbirth in 2021 and rose to the position of sales lead managing 20 agents, the pathway extends beyond income. The experience builds competencies in negotiation, communication and team leadership.
This hybrid model of blending fintech infrastructure with community-based sales forces, allows M-KOPA to scale without heavy fixed investments in physical branches. It also embeds economic activity within local communities, generating multiplier effects as agent commissions circulate domestically.
Gender and first-time credit access
The report also signals progress in gender participation. Women’s representation among customers rose from 29 per cent in 2024 to 33 per cent in 2025. More strikingly, women now account for 55 per cent of active sales agents, reflecting a 42 per cent increase.
According to the report, 52 per cent of female customers accessed their first formal loan through the platform. In Nigeria’s credit landscape, where documentation and collateral requirements often disadvantage women, this indicates that asset-backed digital financing may be lowering systemic barriers.
By tying loans to a tangible, income-generating device rather than traditional collateral, the model enhances risk assessment. Repayment behaviour builds digital credit profiles, potentially unlocking future access to additional financial services.
M-KOPA’s expansion has been reinforced by partnerships with MTN, Samsung and HMD. These alliances create a vertically integrated value chain linking connectivity, hardware and financing.
For telecom operators such as MTN, financed smartphones drive data usage and subscriber loyalty. For manufacturers, instalment-based access expands market penetration among price-sensitive consumers. For M-KOPA, these collaborations strengthen supply reliability and customer value propositions.
