Nigerian fintech company OPay has unveiled an ambitious five-year growth strategy aimed at expanding its global footprint, with plans to reach one billion users, support 10 million merchants, and create up to one million jobs across its markets by 2031.
The company disclosed the roadmap during a media parley held in Lagos on Wednesday, where senior executives highlighted OPay’s achievements since its launch in 2018 and outlined its vision for the next phase of expansion.
Speaking at the event, OPay’s Chief Technology Officer, Dotun Adekunle, revealed that the platform currently serves more than 46 million registered users.
He explained that the fintech’s infrastructure is powered by thousands of interconnected application programming interfaces (APIs), enabling the platform to maintain a 99.9 per cent uptime and deliver uninterrupted digital payment services throughout the year.
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Adekunle noted that the company’s technology architecture is designed to minimize downtime caused by maintenance, server issues, or unexpected technical faults, ensuring consistent service delivery to millions of users.
On the commercial front, Chief Commercial Officer Elizabeth Wang attributed OPay’s rapid growth to customer trust and its focus on financial inclusion. According to her, the platform has become one of Nigeria’s most widely used mobile applications, surpassing several social media platforms in user engagement.
She said OPay’s expansion strategy is centred on reaching underserved communities traditionally excluded from formal banking services.
The company currently operates in 27 of Nigeria’s 36 states and plans to extend its network of agents and merchants to every local government area and ward across the country, significantly increasing its physical presence.
Addressing concerns over data privacy and regulatory compliance, OPay executives stated that customer data is hosted in data centres located within Nigeria, reinforcing the company’s commitment to local data sovereignty amid evolving fintech regulations across Africa.
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The company also confirmed that artificial intelligence has been integrated into various aspects of its operations. However, executives said the deployment has been gradual and deliberate, without providing details on whether all AI processing infrastructure is located within Nigeria.
Looking ahead, Adekunle predicted that the future of digital payments would be driven by embedded and invisible payment technologies, where transactions occur seamlessly in the background of digital interactions without users having to manually initiate transfers through mobile applications.
He added that OPay has strengthened its security framework with features such as Night Guard, Emergency Lock, Large Transaction Shield, and Anti-Scam Shield, which are designed to enhance customer protection against fraud and unauthorized transactions.
According to the company, these innovations provide a competitive edge in Nigeria’s rapidly growing fintech sector, where it competes with major players including Moniepoint and PalmPay.
Since commencing operations in Nigeria in 2018, OPay has expanded into other emerging markets, including Egypt, Pakistan, and Indonesia.
The company said achieving its 2031 targets would transform OPay into one of the world’s largest digital financial platforms, underscoring its strategy of building a business that extends well beyond Nigeria to serve customers across multiple international markets.