OPay just showed its homework, and the numbers are louder than the listing plan. In its US registration filing, the fintech reported revenue of $467.1 million for the first half of 2026, up about 136% from $197.5 million a year earlier. Net income came in at $90.9 million, more than four times the $21.7 million it made in the same period of 2025.
Here is the part Lagos cares about. OPay's board and shareholders have approved a secondary listing on the Nigerian Exchange, to follow its planned primary listing on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker OPAY. The Nigerian leg is subject to market conditions and approvals from the SEC and the exchange.
A business that turned the corner fast
Two years ago this was a loss-making payments app. OPay lost $50.8 million in 2024, then swung to a $72.5 million profit in 2025 on revenue of $536.3 million, which was about 2.6 times the year before. Six months into 2026 it has already booked roughly 87% of last year's full revenue, and its net margin has widened from about 13.5% to about 19.5%.
That is the profile of a company scaling into its fixed costs rather than buying growth with discounts. Whether it holds when competition for agent networks and merchant fees tightens is a fair question. Nigeria remains the engine, so any shift in CBN rules on fintech charges or wallet limits lands straight on these numbers.
The South African bank in the room
Stanbic Africa Holdings, a Standard Bank Group subsidiary, has agreed to invest up to $200 million in a private placement alongside the IPO, for a stake of up to 4.99%. Standard Bank is also one of the lead underwriters, next to Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and CICC. SoftBank entities hold 6.6% before the offering, and the company raised $400 million at a $2 billion valuation back in 2021.
NGX Group chief executive Temi Popoola has named OPay as the kind of homegrown giant the exchange wants on its boards. A local listing would hand Nigerian pension funds and retail investors a slice of a high-growth fintech that, until now, only foreign venture money could own.
The catch: shares traded in Lagos may not be interchangeable with the New York depositary shares unless transfer arrangements are set up. Without that bridge, the two lines could trade at different prices with thinner liquidity at home.
OPay is arriving with real profits, but the value of its Lagos listing for local investors depends on details the filing has not settled yet.
Figures are as reported at the time of writing. STATART news is written by Frank Brother (Markets), Christina Amgbari (Insights) and Ebipadei Joseph (Lifestyle), and checked before publication.