M-KOPA has appointed Rajeev Suri, former CEO of Nokia as well as Inmarsat, and now also serving as chairperson of Digicel and board director at Singtel, as Chairperson of its Board, effective 1st December 2024.
Suri is expected to help M-KOPA as it continues to innovate and expand its reach across markets and provide critical oversight, strategic insights and guidance to the M-KOPA leadership team as it navigates this next phase in its evolution as a leading global fintech.
“We are thrilled to welcome Rajeev to the board as we enter this next phase of growth for the business,” said Jesse Moore CEO & Co-Founder of M-KOPA. “His proven leadership in steering international companies through periods of rapid expansion will be invaluable.”
M-KOPA provides financed smartphones to underbanked every day earners and builds an ongoing financial relationship through its AI credit analytics and smartphone app. Suri joins at a time when M-KOPA has achieved significant scale, with over 5 million customers and more than US $1.5bn of credit deployed across five markets.
M-KOPA announced that it has surpassed 5 million customers across Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa. Two million of these customers have come onboard in the past 15 months.
According to the World Bank, 75% 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. 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
Commenting on his appointment Suri said “M-KOPA represents one of the most exciting fintech propositions, not only in Africa but globally. Their use of leading-edge technologies and AI to solve the critical challenge of digital and financial inclusion is compelling and has the potential to change the way we think about consumers in emerging markets. I am excited to join this team and look forward to driving impactful solutions together”
Outgoing board chair Elizabeth Littlefield will continue serving as an independent board director and chair of the ESG and Impact committee. Commenting on the outgoing chair Moore said, “We are deeply grateful to Elizabeth for her outstanding leadership over the past six years. She and the board have guided M-KOPA through significant transformation and remarkable growth. While she will be stepping down as chair, we are fortunate to have her continue with the board as an independent director.”
