Senior Manager, Communications — M-KOPA

Your pitches land. Your crisis plans hold up. But can you make both work across five markets — while keeping a business, its leaders and its reputation moving in the same direction?

There are communications roles where the brief is clear, the markets are familiar, and there is a team for every specialist need.

This isn't one of them.

At M-KOPA, communications sits much closer to the business. You'll shape the narrative, advise senior leaders, manage reputation, navigate complex stakeholders and know what to do when the story changes faster than the plan.

You'll need to be equally comfortable building the story before it becomes news and protecting it when the stakes suddenly rise.

We're building financial access at a scale few companies attempt. M-KOPA now serves 7 million customers across Sub-Saharan Africa, having unlocked over $2 billion in credit. Independent research tells us 86% of our customers report improved quality of life, 70% use our products to generate income, and 55% are accessing formal financial services for the first time. Behind that: 2,300+ employees, 35,000+ agents, $45 million contributed in taxes, 2 million smartphones assembled in Kenya, and a growing e-mobility business already saving riders $5.62 a day in fuel costs.

Why this timing matters

If you've noticed M-KOPA advertising several senior roles at once, that's not a coincidence — it's deliberate. We're scaling from 7 million customers toward 10 million, and that means building the infrastructure, leadership bench, and narrative capability to match.

Communications sits right at the centre of that.

As we grow, more markets, more media, more employees, more regulators and more public stakeholders need a coherent, credible story about who we are and the impact we're creating.

And that story needs to work at two levels: locally, where context matters, and across the Group, where consistency matters just as much.

This role exists because we're at the point where communications can't simply respond to what is happening. It needs to help shape what happens next.

What makes this different

Most Senior Manager, Communications roles at this level sit above the work — reviewing, approving, delegating.

This one doesn't.

You'll draft the media pitch yourself. You'll sit with a Country MD and work through group positioning. You'll counsel senior stakeholders on how to navigate a sensitive issue. You'll work alongside marketing to make sure campaigns, brand and corporate reputation are telling the same story. You'll partner directly with People/HR on a sensitive change narrative.

You'll also build relationships with the people who matter beyond the organisation — from media and partners to government stakeholders and regulators across the markets in which we operate.

And when something goes wrong, you'll be one of the people in the room figuring out what happens next.

Because reputation doesn't stop at the press release. It lives in the decisions a business makes, the way leaders communicate, the relationships it builds and how it responds when circumstances get complicated.

And in the same week, you might chase a purchase order and reconcile a budget line, because there's no one else to hand that to.

It's a rare mix of strategic counsel, integrated communications, reputation management and genuine hands-on ownership — and because M-KOPA doesn't have dedicated in-market communications teams, you'll be the connective tissue holding Group positioning and market execution together across the region.

What you'll need to bring

• A communications career, not just communications exposure. You've built your expertise in corporate communications, integrated communications or a similarly broad communications environment, and understand how media, reputation, brand, internal communications and stakeholder engagement connect.
• Strong strategic instincts. You can take a business objective, understand what matters to different audiences and turn it into a communications strategy that leaders can actually use. You're as comfortable giving counsel as you are executing the work yourself.
• Deep experience in reputation and issues management. You've operated in situations where the stakes are high and judgement matters. You understand that protecting reputation isn't simply about controlling a message — it's about understanding the business, anticipating risk and knowing how to communicate when there isn't an obvious answer.
• Crisis communications experience that goes beyond a playbook. You've had to think clearly under pressure, advise leaders, coordinate stakeholders and communicate externally when the circumstances weren't neatly packaged. You know that a crisis rarely arrives in the format you prepared for.
• Multi-market experience, ideally across Africa. You've managed reputation and communications across different geographies, cultures, regulatory environments and stakeholder landscapes. You understand that what works in one market may not work in another — and can balance local relevance with a consistent Group narrative.
• Stakeholder confidence. You'll work with Country MDs, senior executives, government stakeholders, regulators, media and other external partners. You need to be able to build trust quickly, navigate different agendas and provide clear counsel — particularly when the answer isn't straightforward.
• Strength across external and internal communications. External communications will be a significant part of the role, but you'll also need to understand employee communications, leadership messaging, organisational change and culture — and how the two worlds influence each other.
• Excellent writing. You can turn complexity into clarity. You know when a message needs precision, when it needs personality and when it needs both. Whether you're writing a press statement, executive briefing, leadership speech, crisis response or employee communication, the quality of your thinking should come through in the quality of your writing.
• Experience in complex, fast-moving environments. You may have worked in a fintech, technology business, high-growth company, agency or another matrixed organisation. What matters is that you've learned to operate across functions, influence without always having direct authority and get up to speed quickly when the context changes.
• Comfort operating lean. You don't need a large team around you to get things done. You know when to bring in an agency or specialist, when to solve the problem yourself and how to keep momentum without unnecessary layers.
• Operational ownership. Agencies, suppliers and budgets aren't someone else's problem. You're comfortable taking work from strategy through to execution — including procurement, POs, spend tracking and the finance administration that keeps the function moving.

What the work actually looks like

One day you're drafting a press statement under time pressure.

The next, you're on a call with a Country MD, working through why local execution has drifted from Group messaging — and helping them fix it, not just flagging it.

You're preparing a senior leader for a difficult conversation with an external stakeholder. You're working with marketing on an integrated campaign and asking the questions that make sure the communications strategy supports the wider business objective.

A regulatory issue emerges in one market. You need to understand it quickly, bring the right people together, assess the reputational implications and help determine what M-KOPA should say — and what it should do.

You're building the weekly media report that actually tells the Director something useful about sentiment and share of voice, not just a list of clippings.

You're