Browsing: low income earners

M-KOPA CEO Jesse Moore with staff in M-Kopa’s Kisumu office. www.theexchange.africa
  • M-KOPA enables underbanked customers in select African markets to access a broad range of products and services without collateral or a guarantor.
  • M-KOPA has raised $190 million over the past decade
  • M-KOPA is known majorly for its pay-as-you-go (PAYG) financing model that allows customers to build ownership of appliances over time by paying an initial deposit followed by flexible micro-payments
  • M-KOPA is looking to expand its flexible daily and weekly payments model by scaling financial services products such as health insurance, cash loans and BNPL merchant partnerships

M-KOPA began commercial sales in Kenya in October 2012 following 2 years of piloting and development.

The young startup expanded to Uganda a year later and commenced operations in Tanzania in late 2014. 

The company, led by co-founder and CEO Jesse Moore started with solar-power home systems targeted at lower-income and rural customers without electricity in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

Known majorly for

Of recent times, microfinance has demonstrably become the most coveted solution to building a robust and efficient national economy that is inclusive of the low-income segment in both urban and rural areas.

The historically nascent level of microfinance services in Tanzania has prompted various non-government organization (domestic and foreign) and financial institutions to take up active roles in providing this service. Institutions such as the Foundation for International Community Assistance (FINCA), SEDA, PRIDE and Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) are some of the active players to have taken up this role in the microfinance subsector. Meanwhile, larger financial institutions have also ventured into carrying out microfinance operations. Banks such as NMB and CRDB which was established in 1995 as a hybrid of a commercial and microfinance bank are key examples of this.

The exciting evolution ofmicrofinance can be traced from before 2000.

Before 2000

The microfinance movement, which is a…