Nigeria-focused fintech giant OPay has made a major leap onto Wall Street, raising $304 million in an initial public offering that values the digital financial services company at about $4 billion.
The SoftBank-backed company began trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Friday under the ticker symbol “OPAY”, marking a significant milestone for one of the biggest fintech businesses to emerge from the Nigerian market.
OPay sold 16 million American Depositary Shares (ADSs) at $19 each, at the lower end of its previously announced price range of $19 to $21.
The listing comes at a challenging time for the US IPO market, where persistent inflation, concerns over company valuations and volatility in technology stocks have weighed on investor sentiment and forced some prospective issuers to delay their listings.
Despite the difficult market environment, OPay’s offering gives the company a valuation of about $4 billion — roughly double the $2 billion valuation it secured during a $400 million funding round in 2021.
OPay also granted its underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 2.4 million ADSs to cover over-allotments. The IPO is expected to close on November 2, subject to customary closing conditions.
Citigroup Global Markets, Deutsche Bank, Standard Bank of South Africa and China International Capital Corporation are among the underwriters for the offering.
Speaking at the listing ceremony, OPay co-Chief Executive Officer Lars Boilesen described the NYSE debut as a major milestone in the company’s evolution from a Nigerian digital payments business into an international financial technology platform.
“We are proud to be the first Nigerian fintech to list in the US on the New York Stock Exchange,” Boilesen said.
According to him, OPay now serves more than 50 million monthly active users across Nigeria, Egypt, Pakistan and Indonesia.
The company’s regulatory filings put the figure at 50.1 million monthly active users as of July 31, 2026, up from 16.6 million in the first quarter of 2024.
OPay has also recorded rapid growth in the volume of transactions processed on its platform. Its IPO filings showed that the company processed about 90.1 billion transactions with a gross transaction value of approximately $558 billion in the 12 months ended June 30, 2026.
Boilesen said the fintech intends to build on its Nigerian experience by expanding further into African markets where millions of people remain outside the conventional banking system.
“We will now expand to other countries in Africa where people do not have access to banking. And we want to go and do financial inclusion in these markets as well,” he said.
The company offers a range of digital financial services, including payments, money transfers, savings, credit and merchant services.
FROM NIGERIA TO WALL STREET
Launched in Nigeria in 2018, OPay rapidly established itself as one of the dominant players in the country’s fast-growing digital payments industry, capitalising on increasing smartphone penetration and gaps in traditional banking services.
Its journey to Wall Street gathered momentum earlier in 2026 when reports emerged that the company was working towards a US IPO with a valuation target of about $4 billion.
The plan took a significant step forward on October 9 when OPay publicly filed its registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and applied to have its ADSs listed on the NYSE.
The SEC subsequently declared the registration statement effective on October 29, clearing the way for Friday’s market debut.
OPay’s expansion plans have also attracted the interest of Standard Bank Group, Africa’s largest bank by assets.
In October, Standard Bank announced a strategic investment agreement with OPay through Stanbic Africa Holdings Limited. The investment is expected to close concurrently with, or shortly after, the IPO, subject to regulatory approvals and other conditions.
The two companies are also exploring a broader partnership covering digital banking, payments, lending, remittances and the distribution of selected Standard Bank financial products through OPay’s consumer and merchant network.
The NYSE listing gives OPay access to a much broader pool of international investors as it seeks to finance further expansion across Africa and other emerging markets.
The company is also considering a secondary listing on the Nigerian Exchange Limited, a move that could eventually provide Nigerian investors with an opportunity to participate directly in the ownership of one of the country’s biggest fintech success stories.
For OPay, Friday’s Wall Street debut represents a dramatic transformation: from a digital payments platform launched in Nigeria eight years ago to a publicly traded global fintech valued at about $4 billion.
