OPay, the payments app millions of Nigerians use for transfers, bills and POS cash, became a public company on 30 October 2026. Its shares started trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker OPAY at $19 each, about ₦25,600.
The short version
- OPay sold 16 million shares at $19 each, the bottom of the $19 to $21 range it set on 23 October.
- The sale raised $304 million and values OPay at about $4 billion.
- OPay got there on small payments. Our math from its SEC filing puts the average OPay transaction at about $6.
- Nigeria brought in 88.1% of OPay’s revenue in 2025.
Lars Boilesen, one of OPay’s two chief executives, called the listing “a significant moment for OPay and Nigeria.”
The $19 price is about ₦25,600 at the CBN’s official rate of ₦1,346.91 to the dollar on 29 October. At the top of its range, OPay would have raised $336 million and been valued at about $4.42 billion.
What OPay sold are American depositary shares, the form many foreign companies use to trade in New York. Each one stands for 10 ordinary OPay shares held by a bank on the buyer’s behalf.
The banks running the deal, led by Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and Standard Bank, have 30 days to buy up to 2.4 million more shares. If they buy them all, the total raised rises to about $350 million. The deal is set to close on 2 November 2026, according to OPay’s pricing announcement.
Small payments, big company
OPay handled 90.1 billion transactions worth $558 billion in the 12 months to 30 June 2026, according to its filing. That works out to about $6.19 per transaction, roughly ₦8,300 at the CBN rate of 29 October: a bus fare, a recharge, a market purchase at a POS.
Its finance chief, James Perry, says OPay reached a $1 billion yearly revenue pace in the second quarter of 2026. That is the company’s own figure. Its full-year revenue for 2025 was $536.3 million.
In plain terms: the listing adds US investor reporting rules on top of the CBN supervision OPay’s Nigerian units already have. OPay now has to publish results every quarter and disclose its risks in public.
Can you buy OPay shares from Nigeria?
Not on a Nigerian exchange yet. The shares trade in New York, in US dollars, through platforms that offer US stocks. OPay’s board and shareholders have approved a second listing on the Nigerian Exchange in Lagos. Its filing says that comes only after the New York listing and still needs approval from Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission. No date has been set. TechCity is not a financial adviser.
What we don’t know yet
- Where the share price settles after its first days of trading.
- When the Lagos listing will happen, and at what naira price.
- Whether the banks will buy the extra 2.4 million shares.
For OPay’s user numbers, who regulates it and what its filing warns about, read our full breakdown: what OPay’s numbers say about your app.
