The Chinese billionaire that owns Opay bank in Nigeria

OPay in Nigeria is owned by Zhou Yahui, a Chinese billionaire and the chairman of Opera Software, which is OPay's parent company. He is also the founder of Kunlun Tech Co. Ltd., another of his companies.

OPay began as Paycom Nigeria, founded in 2009 under Telnet Group. It was among the first mobile money licensees in Nigeria .

In December 2017, Opera acquired Paycom’s parent company, rebranding it as OPay (a blend of “Opera” + “Paycom”) in 2018 .

Headquarters are now in Ikeja, Lagos State. 

Received a Mobile Money Operator (MMO) license from the Central Bank of Nigeria in 2018, plus deposit insurance via NDIC .

Launched its POS services in May 2019—especially important during Nigeria’s cash crisis .

Funding & Valuation

Raised $50 million in July 2019 (Series A) backed by IDG Capital, Sequoia China, Source Code, and Opera .

Raised an additional $120 million (Series B) in November 2019, led by Chinese VCs including Meituan-Dianping, SoftBank, GaoRong, Redpoint, and others .

By September 2021, secured funds from SoftBank’s Vision Fund, reaching a $2 billion valuation .

As of early 2024, its valuation is estimated around $2.7–3 billion .

Services & Scale

Positioned as a super‑app: mobile payments, transfers, savings, loans, bills, food (OFood), ride‑hailing (ORide), logistics (OExpress/OBus), and e-commerce (OMall/OTrade) .

By October 2023, it became Nigeria’s most downloaded app, ahead of WhatsApp, TikTok, etc .

Built strong agent and merchant networks: ~300,000 offline agents and a dominant share of POS transactions. 

Internal competition between OMall & OTrade, with OTrade eventually merging into OMall for greater traction .

Pivoted from transport/logistics (e.g. ORide, OExpress) to focus on core fintech and e‑commerce because of regulations .

Expanded beyond Nigeria: launched in Kenya (2018), later Egypt (2021), and has partnerships with Mastercard, Verve, WorldRemit .

Recent Regulatory Context: In April 2024, Central Bank halted onboarding at OPay and other fintechs over KYC concerns, but this ban was lifted in June 2024.

Nigeria Insiders OPay