The Softbank backed multiple payment platform, OPay founded in Nigerian by Opera plans to expand its payments service operations to North Africa early next year after Covid-19 restrictions led to a spike in transactions on its platform. The fintech startup saw the volume of monthly settlements on its platform grow from $363 million in January to $1.4 billion in November as people sought alternative payments services during coronavirus-induced lockdowns, According to the company, there are plans to reach transactions value of about $2 billion by the end of 2020 .The company will leverage its network of 300,000 offline agents to deepen the adoption of its payments service in the next six months. With these encouraging results, the startup plans to venture into the North African market buoyed by its impressive performance in Nigeria. “The process has begun and we will see how the first quarter turns out.”
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The Lagos-based startup, which has shareholders including Softbank Group Corp. and China’s Meituan, said it attained financial self-sufficiency in June and still has enough cash in the bank to fund its expansion plans. Previous plans to expand to South Africa and Kenya, after raising $190 million in funding last year, have been put on hold due to the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic. In February, OPay suspended part of its operations including the ride-hailing and the logistics businesses to focus on the payments business. The financial service provider is currently piloting a digital overdraft product for its mobile wallet customers who have short-term funding needs. Users will be able to borrow from 5,000 to 100,000 naira and have a window of 30 days to repay. The overdraft attracts 3% interest for the first seven days and 1% every day after that.
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Through the product, which is called CreditMe, “we will be lending to working class people in their mid-20s and 30s, like students and small business owners, who have a source of income,” says the CEO, Akpan. He expects to launch the credit platform in the first quarter subject to approval from the central bank. The mobile-payments company also acquired an international money transfer license last year and plans to partner with WorldRemit to process remittances into Nigeria. New regulations from the central bank are delaying the launch, Akpan said. The service will take off as soon as there is clarity on what operators are allowed to do, he said. OPay currently processes about 80% of bank transfers among mobile money operators in Nigeria and 20% of non-merchant point of sales transactions, Akpan said.
The company is currently exploring partnerships with firms that have complementary services, according to the Managing Director. “We have a large customer base of about seven million and we can offer unique financial products.”
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry