Legal & Compliance Manager – West Africa at M-KOPA

About the job

• We are looking for a Legal & Compliance Manager – West Africa to join our Legal group; as we scale up and drive digital and financial inclusion across our markets.
• The full legal and compliance brief for two of Africa's most significant markets
• Nigeria and Ghana. Two regulatory bodies for banking supervision.
• Corporate governance frameworks — CAMA 2020 and the Companies Act 2019. 
• Two sets of statutory filing obligations.
• One role that carries accountability for all of it, plus commercial contracting, data privacy, compliance programme management, and investor reporting.
• For a lawyer who wants genuine breadth — not a narrow lane in a large legal team — this is a rare brief.
• M-KOPA has extended more than $2 billion in credit to over 7 million customers across seven markets, with 55% accessing formal financial products for the first time. 
• In West Africa, the legal and compliance infrastructure that supports that mission sits with this role.

What the work covers

• The role is the primary legal and compliance resource for M-KOPA's Nigeria and Ghana operations, reporting to the Head of Department. 
• The scope spans regulatory licensing and engagement with the Bank of Ghana and Central Bank of Nigeria; corporate governance and secretarial matters for both entities; drafting, reviewing, and negotiating commercial agreements including vendor contracts, service agreements, and technology licences; and management of the external counsel panel across both markets.
• The role also carries designation as Data Privacy Officer for West Africa, with responsibility for compliance with applicable data privacy legislation across the region, supported by the global privacy team. 
• On the compliance side, it includes maintaining the full suite of compliance tools — obligations register, training calendar, incident register, and risk register — coordinating training programmes, and supporting ESMS implementation and ESG investor reporting.

What this role requires

• An Undergraduate LLB Degree; prior exposure to structured finance, capital markets, or data privacy is an added advantage.
• A proven track record in a legal or compliance function, with post-call-to-bar experience in a regulated or commercially active environment; banking, finance, or fintech exposure is an advantage.
• Demonstrable experience in contract negotiation, regulatory engagement, and corporate governance, with working knowledge of compliance standards and risk management frameworks.

Why this, and why now

• In private practice, you serve the client's brief. In a specialist in-house role, you own one function.
• Here, you are the legal and compliance lead for a growing fintech across two consequential West African markets — with the range, the relationships, and the commercial exposure that comes with it.