Legal, Regulatory & Compliance Counsel

M-KOPA is a fintech and digital financial services company that provides smartphones and a range of financial products to everyday earners across sub-Saharan Africa, operating in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Uganda. The company uses an asset-financing model that allows customers to make an initial deposit on a smartphone and then pay it off through affordable daily, weekly, or monthly installments, building a credit history in the process. This approach has enabled M-KOPA to serve over 10 million customers and unlock more than $2 billion in credit for individuals who are largely excluded from traditional financial systems. M-KOPA's suite of services extends beyond device ownership to include digital loans, health insurance, device protection, and affordable data bundles, all designed to expand economic opportunity for low-income populations. The company also operates a large network of over 35,000 sales agents, many of whom are themselves beneficiaries of the economic empowerment model M-KOPA promotes. M-KOPA has been recognized among the world's top fintech companies and continues to scale its impact across the African continent. While M-KOPA is primarily categorized as a fintech company, its roots are in the renewable energy and pay-as-you-go solar sector, where it pioneered off-grid solar solutions for underserved communities before expanding into smartphones and broader financial services. This evolution reflects the company's enduring mission to connect underserved populations to transformative technologies and financial tools that improve quality of life and drive sustainable economic inclusion.

We are looking for a Legal, Regulatory & Compliance Counsel to join our Legal group; as we scale up and drive digital and financial inclusion across our markets.

Help us build and scale responsibly across West Africa.

M-KOPA is scaling digital and financial inclusion across our markets, and as we grow, so does the need to make sure we are building on strong legal, regulatory and compliance foundations.

This is a broad, hands-on role. You will sit at the intersection of legal, regulatory, compliance, risk, and business operations, helping teams navigate an increasingly complex regulatory environment while enabling the business to move forward confidently.

What you’ll be doing

You’ll be the go-to legal and compliance partner for our West Africa markets, helping M-KOPA understand what is changing in the regulatory landscape and what those changes mean for our business.

A significant part of your role will be keeping our operations compliant across Ghana and Nigeria. This will include supporting regulatory licensing and engagement with regulators such as the Bank of Ghana and Central Bank of Nigeria, managing relevant corporate and regulatory filings, and keeping track of emerging legislation that could affect our products and operations.

You’ll also play an important role in data privacy, acting as the Data Privacy Officer for our West Africa markets and working closely with our global privacy team to ensure we meet applicable privacy requirements and maintain good data governance practices.

Beyond responding to regulations, you’ll help us build a culture where compliance is understood and embedded in how we work. You’ll coordinate compliance training, support the development and review of policies and procedures, and help teams understand and manage compliance risks in their day-to-day work.

You’ll work closely with Legal, Internal Audit, EHS, Risk Management and other business teams to identify compliance gaps, understand root causes and make sure agreed actions are followed through. You’ll maintain key compliance tools, including the compliance obligations register, training calendar, incident register and compliance risk register.

The role also has a strong commercial legal component. You’ll draft, review and negotiate agreements with vendors, partners and technology providers, providing practical legal advice on contractual risk, product structures and business transactions.

You’ll support the governance of our West Africa entities as well, ensuring that board resolutions, statutory filings and corporate records are properly managed and that our Ghana and Nigeria entities remain compliant with applicable company and regulatory requirements.

As we work with external lawyers across the region, you’ll also manage our external counsel panel. This will involve instructing counsel, managing scope and fees, reviewing the quality of external legal work and ensuring we have the right legal support for our markets.

You’ll also contribute to investor compliance and ESG-related requirements, including supporting the implementation of our Environmental and Social Management System (ESMS) and investor reporting.

Ultimately, your role will be about helping M-KOPA spot legal and regulatory risks early, translate complex requirements into practical actions, and enable the business to grow responsibly.

What you’ll bring

We’re looking for a qualified lawyer who enjoys working close to the business and is comfortable moving between legal advice, regulatory matters, compliance and commercial problem-solving.

• 5+ years of post-call legal experience, ideally with exposure to legal and/or compliance functions.

• An LLB degree and relevant professional legal qualification.

• Experience working with regulatory requirements, compliance programmes and risk management.

• Experience drafting, reviewing and negotiating commercial contracts.

• Experience engaging with regulators and navigating regulatory requirements.

• Exposure to banking, financial services, fintech or structured finance/capital markets would be an advantage.

• Strong legal research and analytical skills, with the ability to understand how changes in legislation affect the business.

• Strong attention to detail and the ability to manage multiple priorities across different markets.

• A practical, commercial approach to legal advice. You should be comfortable explaining complex legal or regulatory issues in a way that business teams can act on.

• Strong communication and collaboration skills, particularly when working across different teams, cultures and markets.

• A structured and organised approach to managing work, risks, deadlines and stakeholders.

Why M-KOPA?

At M-KOPA, we empower our people to own their careers through diverse development programs, coaching partnerships, and on-the-job training. We support individual journeys with family-friendly policies, prioritize well-being, and embrace flexibility.

Join us in shaping the future of M-KOPA as we grow together. Explore more at m-kopa.com.

Recognized four times by the Financial Times as one Africa's fastest growing companies (2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026), named on CNBC's World’s Top Fintech Companies 2025 & 2026 and by TIME100 Most influential companies in the world 2023 and 2024 , we've served over 10 million customers, unlocking $2 billion in cumulative credit for the everyday earners across Africa, in addition to over 10,000 e-bikes financed in Kenya.

Important Notice

M-KOPA is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer committed to assembling a diverse, broadly trained staff. Women, minorities, and people with disabilities are strongly encouraged to apply.

M-KOPA explicitly prohibits the use of Forced or Child Labour and respects the rights of its employees to agree to terms and conditions of employment voluntarily, without coercion, and freely terminate their employment on appropriate notice. M-KOPA shall ensure that its Employees are of legal working age and shall comply with local laws for youth employment or student work, such as internships or apprenticeships. 

M-KOPA does not collect/charge any money as a pre-employment or post-employment requirement. This means that we never ask for ‘recruitment fees’, ‘processing fees’, ‘interview fees’, or any other kind of money in exchange for offer letters or interviews at any time during the hiring process.

Applications for this position will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Shortlisting and interviews will take place at any stage during the recruitment process. We reserve the right to close the vacancy early if a suitable candidate is selected before the advertised closing date.

If your application is successful M-KOPA undertakes pre-employment background checks as part of its recruitment process, these include; criminal records, identification verification, academic qualifications, employment dates and employer references.