Business Intelligence Manager

This role offers the opportunity to sit at the strategic heart of M-KOPA Kenya Operations, shaping the direction of one of Africa's most innovative fintech companies. You won't be waiting for questions to answer—you'll be anticipating the questions leadership should be asking and arriving with solutions already formulated. You'll combine the analytical rigor of a data scientist with the strategic mindset of a management consultant and the business instincts of a seasoned operator. Your insights won't just inform decisions—they'll shape strategy and impact millions of customers' lives, working with talented cross-functional teams across all departments.

We foster a culture where strategic intelligence meets proactive problem-solving. Our team values forward-looking insights, commercial acumen, and analytical rigor that drives competitive advantage. You'll be empowered to identify opportunities and risks before they become obvious, challenge strategic assumptions with data, and serve as a trusted advisor who translates market dynamics into winning strategies that position M-KOPA for sustained success.

At M-KOPA, our Business Intelligence function isn't just about reporting—it's the strategic early-warning system and competitive intelligence engine that enables us to lead rather than follow in Africa's fintech revolution.

Strategic Intelligence & Proactive Solution Development

• Serving as the strategic early-warning system for Kenya Operations, proactively identifying emerging threats and opportunities before they impact the business

• Developing unsolicited strategic recommendations based on patterns you observe in performance data, market dynamics, or competitive moves

• Anticipating leadership's strategic questions and arriving at meetings with analysis and recommendations already prepared

• Building advanced forecasting models that identify inflection points, risks, and opportunities requiring strategic response

• Designing sophisticated scenario planning frameworks that pressure-test strategies against multiple future states (regulatory changes, competitive disruption, macroeconomic shifts)

• Challenging strategic assumptions with rigorous analysis—being the voice that asks "what if we're wrong about this?" and provides data to validate or redirect strategy

• Transforming complex, multi-dimensional datasets into compelling strategic narratives that drive executive decision-making

• Conducting deep-dive root cause analyses when performance deviates from expectations, arriving with not just diagnosis but recommended solutions

• Building business cases for strategic initiatives, quantifying expected ROI and implementation requirements

Market & Competitive Intelligence: Winning the Strategic Game

• Maintaining comprehensive competitive intelligence that goes beyond feature comparison to understand competitors' strategic intent, vulnerabilities, and likely next moves

• Proactively developing competitive response strategies before competitors' actions impact our market position

• Building war-gaming scenarios that simulate competitive dynamics and test the robustness of our strategies

• Identifying strategic whitespace—underserved segments, unmet needs, or market inefficiencies that represent growth opportunities

• Monitoring the broader fintech and financial services ecosystem for emerging business models or technologies that could disrupt our approach

• Translating regulatory developments into strategic implications—not just compliance requirements, but competitive advantages or strategic risks

• Developing point-of-view perspectives on "what's next" for Kenya's fintech market and positioning M-KOPA to lead rather than follow

• Building relationships with industry experts, regulatory bodies, and market intelligence sources to maintain information advantage

• Creating competitor scorecards that track not just what competitors are doing but how effectively they're executing

Customer Intelligence & Commercial Strategy

• Developing deep customer insight that goes beyond demographics to understand motivations, decision-making processes, and unmet needs

• Proactively identifying customer segments with attractive unit economics or strategic value that we're underserving

• Supporting pricing strategy with commercial insights

• Translating customer insights into product and marketing strategies that drive acquisition, engagement, and retention

• Identifying early signals of customer behavior shifts that could impact portfolio quality, retention, or lifetime value

• Building financial models linking customer acquisition strategies to long-term unit economics and shareholder value

• Challenging product and commercial teams with customer data when strategies seem misaligned with market realities

• Developing customer segmentation frameworks that inform differentiated go-to-market strategies

Performance Management & Strategic Diagnostics

• Designing executive dashboards that don't just report what happened but highlight why it matters and what action is required

• Establishing leading indicators that provide early warning of performance issues before they become crises

• Conducting proactive variance analyses when performance trends deviate from expectations, arriving with hypotheses and recommended interventions

• Building self-service analytics that empower managers to answer their own questions while maintaining strategic oversight

• Creating KPI frameworks that align operational activities with strategic objectives and drive accountability

Strategic Partnership & Cross-Functional Enablement

• Serving as thought partner to department heads, bringing external perspective and analytical rigor to their strategic challenges

• Facilitating strategic planning sessions where you don't just participate but shape the agenda and drive outcomes

• Proactively identifying cross-functional issues or opportunities that no single department owns but require coordinated response

• Building analytical capability across teams, raising the bar for data-informed decision-making organization-wide

• Challenging strategies that lack analytical foundation while offering to develop the analysis needed to validate or improve them

• Serving as strategic translator between technical teams and commercial teams, ensuring both perspectives inform strategy

This is a strategic leadership role based in Nairobi, Kenya. If successful, you would be reporting to the Head of Business Management, Kenya Operations.

Education & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Economics, Finance, Engineering, or related quantitative field

• 6-8 years combining strategic analysis, business intelligence, and hands-on business management with demonstrated ownership of strategic initiatives end-to-end

• Proven track record of proactively identifying business opportunities or risks that resulted in strategic action and measurable impact

• Experience in high-growth fintech, financial services, telecoms, or technology sectors balancing rapid execution with analytical rigor

• Background in East African markets with understanding of Kenya's commercial, regulatory, and competitive dynamics preferred

Core Competencies

• Business Acumen & Strategic Thinking (paramount): Deep commercial intuition connecting analytical insights to P&L drivers, customer behavior, and competitive positioning

• Analytical & Technical Capabilities: Advanced proficiency in SQL, Python/R, Excel financial modeling, and visualization tools (Tableau/Power BI)

• Communication & Influence: Exceptional ability to distill complex analyses into clear, actionable recommendations for C-suite executives

• Ability to anticipate business needs and proactively deliver insights before being asked

• Commercial acumen that connects analytical findings to P&L impact and value creation

• Courage to bring uncomfortable truths to leadership when data reveals strategic vulnerabilities

• Success in translating complex market dynamics into executable strategic recommendations

• Track record of driving strategic initiatives that delivered measurable business results

• Strategic mindset that sees patterns others miss and connects seemingly unrelated dots

• Proactive approach—bringing solutions, not just problems

• Experience building forecasting models, scenario planning frameworks, and business cases

• Competitive intelligence expertise with understanding of market dynamics

• Customer insight development skills that inform commercial strategy

• Ability to design executive dashboards and establish leading indicators

• Cross-functional influence and strategic partnership skills

Who You Are

• You're the person who sees patterns others miss and connects dots that seem unrelated

• You don't just crunch numbers—you understand what drives business performance and can articulate the "so what" behind every analysis

• You've earned credibility with senior leaders by consistently bringing forward-looking actionable insights that protected the business from threats or unlocked new opportunities

• You're equally comfortable debating market strategy as you are building financial models

• You're proactive, not reactive—you bring solutions, not just problems

If the above is of interest to you, please apply.

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 and 2025) and by TIME100 Most influential companies in the world 2023 and 2024 , we've served over 6 million customers, unlocking $1.5 billion in cumulative credit for the unbanked across Africa.

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.