M-KOPA Expands to Nigeria, Appoints Babajide Duroshola as Country GM
Connected asset financing platform M-KOPA, has officially expanded to Nigeria. To lead the Nigeria team, M-KOPA has named Babajide Duroshola as the new General Manager.
A part of the tech company’s broader expansion strategy, the move into the Nigerian market signals M-KOPA’s focus on offering millions of underbanked customers across Sub-Saharan Africa access to life-enhancing products and services such as smartphones, solar lighting, energy-efficient televisions, fridges and digital financial services via its financing platform.
The company recorded pilot sales of over 20,000 devices in Lagos, and is rapidly expanding into states across the country, including Oyo. M-KOPA has partnered with Airtel and Samsung to enable access to smartphones and broader digital connectivity. Through M-KOPA’s pay-as-you-go financing model, customers have instant access to quality 4G smartphone handsets, while building ownership over time through flexible micropayments.
Mayur Patel, M-KOPA’s Chief Commercial Officer, added, “Nigeria is an exciting market for M-KOPA to be expanding into. It presents an opportunity for us to bring the power of our financing platform to serve more underbanked customers, who otherwise would not readily have access to smartphone devices. Additionally, through our strategic partnerships and end-to-end solution, we are best positioned to address mobile operators’ key challenge to convert consumers from 2G/3G networks to 4G.
“We’ve had great success in our pilot by combining the best of what we’ve built as a multi-market company with a willingness to localise and adapt our offering to the unique needs of Nigerian consumers. As we scale our presence across the country, we are excited to welcome Babajide on board. He is an exceptional leader with broad cross-functional experience and the ideal candidate to drive the growth of our team in Nigeria as we expand M-KOPA’s footprint on the continent.”
Having worked across startups, technology, banking and consulting for over a decade, Babajide joins M-KOPA from motorcycle ride-hailing platform SafeBoda Nigeria, where he was responsible for the overall business as Country Director. His career before SafeBoda included Community Manager, Technical Talent at Andela. As Country General Manager, Babajide will be responsible for leading M-KOPA Nigeria with a rapidly growing team of 50 people, expanding partnerships and scaling operations across the country.
Commenting on his new role as General Manager, Babajide Duroshola said: “Already, we have seen firsthand in Nigeria how smartphone financing is a driver of business growth and by increasing access to life-improving devices, M-KOPA has been able to deliver enormous opportunities for innovation and tangible impact within the communities it works. It is a great honour for me to be joining and advancing M-KOPA’s mission in Nigeria and I look forward to being an integral part of such a talented global team”
Founded in 2011, M-KOPA pioneered and kick-started the wider pay-as-you-go solar market in Kenya. In 2019, M-KOPA launched smartphone financing and has since expanded to one of the world’s most advanced connected asset financing platforms. To date, the company has provided over $400 million in financing that has enabled over 1 million customers to access their products and services, and sold over 1 million PAYG solar systems and 500,000 smartphones to customers in Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria.
M-KOPA is looking to expand its talent pool and is currently recruiting for a number of roles including Android Developers, Back-end Engineers and Data Scientists.
