M-KOPA Kenya has announced plans to expand its electric mobility financing model across the country after successful rollout in Nairobi where it has so far financed ownership of 5,000 electric bikes.
Speaking during the release of its 2025 Impact Report, M-KOPA Mobility General Manager Brian Njao said the financial technology firm is targeting to unveil the services in three other cities by end of the first quarter of 2026.
The move follows the success of its smartphone financing business which according to the report has reached 4.5 million smartphone users.
“We are now moving to a world where we are providing the same M-KOPA advantage of being able to pay a small deposit fee and a daily fee towards a much bigger asset and that means ten times the size of a smartphone and we are able to do this because 40pc of our current customers are actually customers already within M-KOPA, particularly in smartphone business,” said Njao.
In a bid to boost uptake of its M-KOPA branded e-bikes, the fintech firm has partnered with three local e-bike assemblers, Roam, Spiro and Ampersand who will be supply e-bikes with battery swapping technology as well as the charge at home option.
The report shows that through the paygo model, riders save an average of Ksh 730 per day through reduced fuel costs and fewer repairs, with 66pc reporting higher earnings since switching to electric.
“We are not just looking at fuel, we are also looking at the daily fee which ranges from Ksh 300 a day to about Ksh 600 a day. The reason why there is a big disparity is that we have two types of bikes that are electric, swap bikes meaning you ultimately do not own the battery but you own the bike but you are able to swap at any given point in time.
We also have what we call charge at home model where you ultimately own the bike meaning that with that scenario you repay a bit more because you ultimately own the bike,” added Njao.
The report further shows that since 2010, M-KOPA Kenya has unlocked at least Ksh 207 billion in credit to its 4.8 million customers traditionally excluded from formal finance.
According to M-KOPA Kenya General Manager Martin King’ori the firm is now keen to expand export of its smartphones after securing the Ugandan market.
“We are exporting about 10pc right now of 150,000 devices and we have been doing that for the last six months. So as we scale then we will continue increasing that percentage,” said M-KOPA Kenya Chief Executive Officer.
The report further shows that M-KOPA contributed Ksh 3.79 billion in taxes last year alone, and spent Ksh 20.3 billion in local procurement. The firm also directly employs 1,320 staff and supports 14,000 sales agents across the country.
