OPay Limited, the company behind the OPay app used by millions of Nigerians, set the terms of its New York Stock Exchange debut on October 23, 2026, offering 16 million American depositary shares at $19 to $21 each under the ticker “OPAY”. At the top of that range the OPay IPO would raise about $336 million, and the company says it plans a secondary listing on the Nigerian Exchange afterwards, subject to market conditions and regulatory approval.
OPay is the only IPO on the US calendar this week, and the shares are expected to start trading on Friday, October 30, if pricing goes to plan. Each depositary share represents 10 ordinary shares, and cornerstone and existing investors have indicated non-binding interest in buying up to $270 million of the offering, which covers most of it before the shares even reach the wider market.
| Exchange and ticker | New York Stock Exchange, OPAY |
|---|---|
| Shares offered | 16 million ADSs, each worth 10 ordinary shares |
| Launch Price | $19 to $21 per ADS |
| Maximum raise | About $336 million |
| Expected first trade | 30 October 2026 (expected) |
| Monthly active users | 50.1 million |
| Revenue, first half of 2026 | $467.1 million, up from $197.5 million |
| Net income, first half of 2026 | $90.9 million, up from $21.7 million |
| Markets | Nigeria, Egypt, Indonesia and Pakistan |
| Next listing | Nigerian Exchange, subject to approvals |
The numbers behind a Nigerian favourite going to Wall Street
OPay is headquartered in Singapore, but Nigeria is the market most of its users know it from. The company reported 50.1 million monthly active users and $558 billion in transaction volume across 90.1 billion transactions in the 12 months to June 30, 2026. Revenue for the first six months of 2026 came to $467.1 million, more than double the $197.5 million it made in the same period a year earlier, and net income rose to $90.9 million from $21.7 million.
Alongside the New York offering, Stanbic Africa Holdings, a Standard Bank Group subsidiary, has agreed to buy up to $200 million of ordinary shares in a private placement, and the two companies have signed a memorandum of understanding covering digital banking, payments and lending. Investors named as interested in the IPO include RWC Asset Management, Coronation Africa Frontiers Fund, Ninety One Asia and an entity linked to SoftBank. Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Standard Bank and CICC are leading the deal.
Your OPay wallet doesn’t change because the company lists
An IPO changes who owns the company, not how your account works. Transfers, card payments, savings and bills on the app carry on as before, and OPay’s Nigerian website still describes the service as licensed by the CBN and insured by the NDIC. What a listing does bring is more public scrutiny, because a company traded in New York has to file regular financial reports and disclose its risks to shareholders, so Nigerian users will hear far more about how OPay makes and spends its money than they do now.
Be careful with anything that uses the IPO as bait. Messages promising “early OPay shares” or asking you to send money to reserve them don’t come from the company, which is selling its New York shares through investment banks, not through the app or WhatsApp. The CBN’s recent warning about keeping money sent to you by mistake, which we covered in what the CBN said about wrong transfers, shows how closely regulators are watching the way money moves on these apps.
When Nigerians might be able to buy OPay shares in naira
The New York shares will trade in US dollars, and OPay hasn’t given a date for the Nigerian Exchange listing. It has only said the secondary listing will happen after the US debut, depending on market conditions and approvals, which in Nigeria means sign-off from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the exchange itself. Until that happens, there’s no naira-denominated OPay share to buy, and this article isn’t investment advice, so speak to a licensed adviser before putting money into any new listing.
OPay has kept adding services while preparing for the listing, including the recurring payments feature we covered in how OPay wallets can now pay foreign subscriptions. The price it settles on this week, and whether it lands inside the $19 to $21 range, is the first public verdict on what investors think the app millions of Nigerians use every day is worth, and the Lagos listing date is the detail to watch if you want a stake without dealing in dollars.
