SoftBank-backed OPay Digital Services is considering a secondary listing on the Nigerian Exchange alongside its planned initial public offering in New York, according to people familiar with the matter cited by Bloomberg. The US prospectus is expected imminently. Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan Chase are advising on the sale.
Why it matters: If OPay lists only in New York, a company that earns 88% of its revenue from Nigerians would be owned almost entirely by foreign capital. A dual listing would give Nigerian investors direct access to one of the country's fastest-growing financial institutions, and would give the NGX a genuine anchor listing in a sector it has never had.
By the numbers:
Target IPO valuation: roughly $4bn, double the $2bn at which SoftBank's Vision Fund 2 led a $400m Series C in 2021.
FY2025 revenue: $536.3m, up 161% from $205.7m in FY2024 (audited, per Nairametrics).
Net profit: $72.5m in FY2025, swinging from a $51m loss the year before.
EBITDA: $113.2m, a 21% margin, after a $33.6m loss in FY2024.
Gross transaction value: $358bn in 2025, up 115% year on year.
Monthly active users: 39.3m. Daily active users (Q4 2025): 22.7m. Retention rate: 96% next month for multi-product users.
POS terminals dispatched: 900,000. New loans originated: $938.3m, up 285%.
Revenue split: Nigeria: 88.1%. Indonesia: 9.9%. Egypt: 1.6%. Other: 0.4%.
The valuation staircase: OPay was valued at $2bn in its 2021 Series C. Opera's SEC filings showed an implied $2.7bn by early 2024 and $3.1bn by end-2025, with Opera assigning an 85% probability to an IPO within two years. Standard Bank has been in talks to buy a pre-IPO stake at undisclosed terms. The $4bn target is a clean double for SoftBank in five years, but it prices OPay at roughly 7.5x trailing revenue, a premium the company will need public-market growth to justify.
The NGX angle: NGX CEO Temi Popoola has been publicly pressing the case. In early August, he urged President Tinubu to support measures encouraging companies generating substantial revenue in Nigeria to list domestically, naming OPay and PalmPay specifically. The timing and structure of a Nigerian listing remain unclear. A secondary listing would typically mean OPay's primary share register and price discovery sit in New York, with a smaller float on the NGX tracking the US price.
Yes, but two things to watch closely.
First, concentration. Nigeria is 88% of revenue, and the naira's recent strength helps the dollar-translated numbers look better than they would have a year ago. If the naira reverses, OPay's dollar revenue shrinks mechanically even if underlying volumes grow.
Second, Opera. The Norwegian browser company still holds 9.5% of OPay, and its own stock now depends on OPay's valuation. Opera's full-year 2025 net income was $108.3m, but strip out the $36.3m fair-value gain from revaluing its OPay stake and that figure drops to about $72m. The IPO is not just OPay's exit. It is Opera's too. That creates alignment on price but also urgency that may not serve long-term public investors.
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