Asset financing company M-Kopa is now exporting 15,000 locally assembled mobile phones to Uganda every month, which is 10 percent of the 150,000 devices it produces monthly at its Nairobi assembly plant.
The company’s output at the Nairobi assembly plant has increased 25 percent from the average 120,000 units it was assembling monthly as of October last year, and the Uganda shipments are part of a strategy to lower operational costs and, in turn, reduce customer defaults.
M-Kopa says it aims to increase exports to Kenya’s western neighbour in the coming year and meet demand before exploring the possibility of setting up a local assembly there.
It began shipping to Uganda in the third quarter of 2024 with a trial shipment of 1,000 phones as a strategy to lower costs, in contrast to selling similar devices manufactured in China, which are subject to a 10 percent import duty, increasing the cost of the devices.
“While we operate an independent unit in Uganda, we have not set up an assembly plant there because the output does not justify it yet,” M-Kopa’s Kenya general manager, Martin King’ori, told the Business Daily.
“We’re supplying them, and once the numbers are higher, there is a possibility of setting up there.”
Kenyan-made devices are exempt from import duty in Uganda because the East African Community (EAC) Common Market Protocol waiver tariffs on goods manufactured within the region.
M-Kopa sells these branded phones alongside other devices by manufacturers like Samsung on a hire-purchase basis under a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) model. A customer pays a deposit and repays the remaining amount in daily, weekly or monthly instalments. The phone is locked if they default on their payment.
As per its website, the company has three M-Kopa and seven Samsung models on sale, although their prices are not listed.
M-Kopa began assembling smartphones locally in January 2023, after Kenya introduced a 10 percent excise duty on imported phones onto the already existing 25 percent import duty, which would significantly raise the cost of the devices.
It partners with HMD- the Finnish manufacturer of Nokia phones, to locally assemble M-Kopa-branded smartphones and some Nokia-branded models.
This has made it one of the two major companies assembling phones locally alongside East Africa Device Assembly Kenya- a Safaricom-led consortium based in Athi River.
Mr Kin’gori said M-Kopa has shelved assembling phones for other companies “until we feel like we fully meet our own demand in the East African region.”
To date, M-Kopa has assembled over two million devices and begun refurbishing phones for the local market.
“About 10 percent of the smartphones sold in Kenya in the eight months to August 2025 alone were refurbished units,” he said.
M-Kopa said it has crossed two million customers for its free health insurance coverage it has bundled into its branded phones in partnership with Turaco Insurance since January 2024. The cover pays out Sh1,000 for every night spent in a public or private hospital.
The 2025 disclosures came after the UK-headquartered firm reported turning a net profit of Sh1.2 billion for the first time last year, after making losses since it was founded in 2010.
