Pan-African fintech M-KOPA has reached 10 million customers across Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa, a milestone that reflects the rapid growth of smartphone financing as one of Africa’s expanding financial products.

The company said it needed eight years to reach its first one million customers after it launched in 2012 as a solar financing business. Since moving into smartphone financing in 2020, M-KOPA has added another nine million customers in six years, underscoring both demand for device financing and a wider change in how millions of Africans access credit.

Nigeria has played a notable role in that growth. M-KOPA said the country became the fastest market in its history to surpass one million customers, showing how quickly its financing model has gained traction in Africa’s largest economy.

Rather than relying on the salary records or extensive credit histories typically required by conventional lenders, M-KOPA designs its products around what it calls “Every Day Earners.” The term refers to people such as traders, artisans, transport operators and small business owners who earn income daily but are often excluded from formal financial services.

The company’s flagship product combines smartphone financing with embedded services such as insurance, device protection and access to credit. Customers can acquire devices through instalment payments instead of paying the full purchase price upfront.

The milestone also highlights the changing role of smartphones across Africa, where devices have moved beyond consumer electronics to become financial infrastructure. For many users, owning a smartphone is increasingly a first step toward digital payments, online commerce, digital banking, remote work opportunities and other financial services.

Nigeria’s position as M-KOPA’s fastest-growing market also reflects a broader trend in the country’s fintech ecosystem, where smartphone access is increasingly tied to financial inclusion.

Many digital financial services, including banking apps, digital lending platforms, investment products and payment tools, depend on smartphone ownership. At the same time, inflation has pushed handset prices beyond the reach of many consumers, making financing an important way to close the affordability gap.

Fintech companies are increasingly treating phones not simply as retail products but as assets that provide access to the wider digital economy. That approach has helped M-KOPA expand far beyond its original solar business.

According to the company, its revenue has grown at an average annual rate of 50% since 2020. M-KOPA now adds about 10,000 new customers each day across its five operating markets.

The scale of that growth also puts more attention on execution in device financing, where companies must combine distribution, repayment collection, after-sales support and risk management while serving customers whose incomes may be irregular.

The company has also invested in local manufacturing alongside its financing operations. In 2023, it opened what it describes as Africa’s largest smartphone assembly facility in Kenya. The facility employs more than 400 people and has assembled more than 3.3 million devices to date.

M-KOPA’s distribution network has grown substantially as well, supported by more than 40,000 sales agents across its markets.

The company’s expansion has brought international recognition. M-KOPA has appeared on the Financial Times’ Africa’s Fastest Growing Companies ranking for five consecutive years and was recently named to CNBC’s World’s Top Fintech Companies list for the second consecutive year.

“Every Day Earners have always been creditworthy. What they needed was credit built around how they really make a living, not a payslip,” Jesse Moore, M-KOPA’s co-founder and CEO, said.

The 10 million-customer milestone comes as competition in Africa’s device financing market continues to increase, with fintech companies increasingly viewing smartphone ownership not only as a retail opportunity but also as a route to bringing millions of underserved consumers into the formal digital financial system.