M-KOPA says smartphone repayment data is helping it expand digital lending, insurance, and other credit services for underserved customers across Africa.
M-KOPA is using smartphone repayments to expand digital lending across Africa. The Nairobi-based asset financing company has long been known for helping customers buy smartphones on credit. Now it is using the repayment data from those phone instalments to assess who can qualify for additional loans.
This approach is a form of data-driven underwriting, which means using a customer’s payment history like a report card to estimate risk. M-KOPA’s CFO, Faraimose Kutadzaushe, said the phone is mainly the entry point. The goal is to help customers qualify for products they might not get from banks or other traditional lenders.
M-KOPA said it has served nearly 10 million customers across the continent and deployed more than $2 billion in credit. While smartphones remain a key customer acquisition tool, the company says it is increasingly earning revenue from lending, insurance, and other financial services built on repayment behaviour.
The strategy fits a wider shift in African fintech. Many lenders now rely on cash flow and digital payment histories, especially where formal credit records are limited. For example, Moniepoint uses merchant transaction data on its platform to underwrite business loans.
Formal credit access is still limited in many low-income markets, including parts of Africa. When people cannot show a bank loan history, lenders look for other signals. Regular smartphone repayments can become a reliable signal because they happen frequently and are easy to track.
For customers, this can mean faster loan approvals and smaller, more flexible credit products. For lenders, it can reduce defaults by pricing loans based on real repayment patterns.
It also shows how device financing is turning into a distribution channel for financial services. Phones are not just hardware sales, they are becoming the data layer that powers digital lending and insurance at scale.
Primary Source: Techcabal
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