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OPay, a Nigerian fintech start-up, founded by Opera, has disclosed its intention to expand its payment service operations to North Africa by the first quarter of 2021 (Q1 2021).
According to sources, the decision is sequel to the success recorded by the firm in Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria.
In addition, reports gathered that the COVID-19 pandemic has yielded positive impact on the firm, leading to a massive increase in the volume of monthly settlements carried out on the platform, from $363 million in January to $1.4 billion as at November 2020. This growth created pre-requisite financial buffers needed to expand the firm’s operation.
It was reported in July 2020 that OPay had decided to shut down other parts of its operations, such as the ride-hailing and the logistics businesses, to focus on the payments business and fintech.
Reports show earlier plans by OPay to expand to South-Africa and Kenya were halted due to disruptions caused by the coronavirus.
Commenting on the financial performance of the firm, the Managing Director of OPay in Nigeria, Iniabasi Akpan, said: “We plan to reach a transaction value of about $2 billion by the end of this year. The company will leverage its network of 300,000 offline agents to deepen the adoption of its payments service. The company is now planning an entry into the north African market after its success in Africa’s most populous country. The process has begun and we will see how the first quarter turns out.”OPay launched its mobile payment service in August 2018.”
Mr Akpan said that OPay currently processes about 80% of bank transfers among mobile money operators in Nigeria and 20% of non-merchant point of sales transactions.He also revealed that OPay acquired an international money transfer license in 2019 with the launch being delayed by new regulations from CBN. OPay plans to partner with WorldRemit to process remittances in Nigeria.
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