OPay Should List in Nigeria and Let Its Customers Share in Its Success

OPay should list in Nigeria. Not because a successful company owes every customer a free share, and not because a New York listing is somehow disloyal. It should do so because the market that built the bulk of its business deserves a practical opportunity to invest in that business. If Nigeria has paid the piper, Nigerians should have a voice in the tune.

The case is no longer based on sentiment alone. In its US IPO prospectus, OPay says Nigeria generated $417.6 million, or 89.5%, of its total revenue in the first six months of 2026. Nigeria also accounted for 88.1% of group revenue in 2025. Those figures give the country a central place in the company’s commercial story. They do not mean every OPay user has a legal claim on its shares, but they make a compelling case for giving Nigerian investors a genuine route to ownership.

OPay appears to recognise that case. The same filing says its board and shareholders have approved pursuing a secondary listing on the Nigerian Exchange, or NGX, after its proposed primary listing on the New York Stock Exchange. That plan remains subject to market conditions and Nigerian regulatory approval. It is an intention, not a completed listing or an open offer to buy shares. The question now is whether OPay will turn that intention into a credible opportunity for ordinary Nigerians.

The people who made the valuation possible

OPay’s growth is not an abstract spreadsheet story. It is the merchant accepting a transfer at a roadside stall, the agent keeping transactions moving in a neighbourhood with few bank branches, and the worker who chooses the app for daily payments. The company says it processed 90.1 billion transactions worth $558 billion in gross transaction value in the 12 months to June 2026. That is platform activity, not OPay’s revenue or profit. Still, it illustrates the scale of the network on which investors will place a value.

There is nothing wrong with raising capital in the United States. New York can offer global visibility, deep institutional pools and a valuation that reflects a fast-growing technology company. OPay should seek good terms for its business. But a company whose revenue is so concentrated in Nigeria should not leave local investors watching its wealth creation from a distance while international funds get the easier route in.

Some Nigerians can already invest abroad through approved brokers, depending on their circumstances. That is not the same as an accessible domestic market in which shares can be held and traded through familiar, regulated channels, with local reporting and investor protections. Dollar funding, foreign-account requirements and brokerage friction make a US listing a very different proposition for an ordinary naira earner.

Dangote has shown what access can look like

The Dangote Petroleum Refinery public offer, which closed on 27 October 2026, is an imperfect but useful comparison. The refinery opened a route for retail investors to apply through banks, brokers and digital platforms. Its minimum application was ten shares at N525 each, according to the NGX account of the offer. The point is not that buying the shares was automatically a good investment. Nor does an application receipt guarantee allotment. The point is that a major Nigerian business designed a channel through which people could at least consider becoming owners.

TechBooky previously explained how Nigerians could apply for Dangote Refinery shares using approved mobile and banking channels. OPay, a payments company built around digital access, should be especially capable of supporting an investor experience that is understandable, low-friction and compliant with securities rules. It must not market shares as a loyalty reward or turn its payments app into an unregulated stockbroker. But it can work with licensed market participants to make legitimate participation easier.

Other companies have demonstrated that global ambition and a Nigerian listing can coexist. Airtel Africa listed in London and then on the Nigerian exchange in 2019. The exchange described that cross-border approach as a way to broaden local access while raising global capital. MTN Nigeria went further with a retail share offer in 2021. The NGX says the digital offer for 575 million existing shares was oversubscribed. These are not identical corporate structures, but they rebut the suggestion that serving a Nigerian mass market and including Nigerian shareholders are incompatible goals.

There is a difference between listing existing shares for trading and making shares available to a broad new group of investors. A secondary listing can improve access and visibility without necessarily raising fresh capital or guaranteeing that retail investors receive an allocation. If OPay wants its Nigerian listing to answer the fairness question, it should consider a meaningful local offer, clear retail allotment rules and a minimum investment that does not exclude the very customers who helped it grow.

It should also be transparent about what investors are buying. A prospectus needs to explain the legal entity, the relationship between New York depositary shares and Nigerian-traded shares, currency and settlement arrangements, voting rights, dilution, profitability, risks and fees. Investors deserve audited numbers and plain-language explanations, not an emotional appeal to national pride. OPay’s proposed listing must meet the NGX and Nigerian securities regulator’s requirements, and the company should be judged on the quality of its disclosures as much as the number of people it attracts.

The strongest objection is that companies are not public utilities. OPay’s founders and early backers took risks and put in capital; customers received a service in exchange for fees or transactions. That is true. Local ownership is not a debt that can be collected by slogan. But capital markets are partly about inviting the public into the next stage of a business. When a company chooses to sell shares, it also chooses which public gets the easiest invitation. For OPay, that choice carries unusual significance because Nigeria supplied nearly nine-tenths of recent revenue.

A Nigerian listing would not guarantee returns. OPay’s share price could fall, and nobody should buy simply because they use the app. Yet allowing Nigerians to evaluate the same opportunity available to overseas investors is a more honest form of inclusion than asking them only to transact, recruit merchants and build the network. OPay has already put a Nigerian secondary listing in its plans. It should make that commitment real, substantial and accessible. The country that helped make the music deserves the chance to own a part of the instrument.