OPay
Millions of Nigerians use OPay to move money every day. It has grown on Nigeria’s demand for digital financial services and reportedly scaled to 50.1 million monthly active users.
The company is pursuing a listing on the New York Stock Exchange that could value it at up to $4.42 billion. The SEC filing shows its corporate home is far beyond Nigeria’s borders; OPay Limited is incorporated in the Cayman Islands and headquartered in Singapore, despite earning almost 90% of its revenue in Nigeria, OPay is not alone. Paystack, founded by Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, became one of Nigeria’s most prominent technology success stories.
It was acquired by Stripe in 2020, in a deal widely reported to be worth about $200 million. Paystack was incorporated in the United States. Flutterwave, Andela, Moove and Jumia have also built significant businesses connected to African markets through corporate structures that extend beyond the continent.
Nigeria’s ability to build successful technology businesses is not in doubt. As of August 2026, six of Africa’s ten unicorns, including Interswitch, Flutterwave, OPay, Andela, Moniepoint and Moove are here. This is evidence of the country’s capacity to produce businesses of billion dollar value.
But the real question is :
“Why does so much of the corporate architecture behind Africa’s technology ambitions sit outside Africa?” There are legitimate reasons for this.
Technology companies often need capital from investors operating across borders. Those investors may prefer familiar legal systems, established shareholder protections, predictable dispute resolution, and corporate structures that make future fundraising or a public listing easier. The Cayman Islands and Delaware in the United States, for example, offer established frameworks for organising ownership and investment.
Founders do not necessarily choose these structures because they have rejected Nigeria. They may choose them because they want to make their companies investable to global capital.
The problem arises when Nigeria becomes good at producing the ingredients of successful companies but less competitive at retaining the ownership structures through which their long-term value can be distributed.
If the technology sector is to have a deeper, lasting impact, we must look beyond valuations to ask who owns these businesses and who has the opportunity to participate in their growth.
The value sits with the shares
In 2021, OPay was valued at $2 billion. Now, its proposed New York listing could value the company at $4.42 billion, more than double its earlier valuation. At the top of the proposed price range, SoftBank’s 6.6% stake would be worth approximately $292 million. That is the power of equity.
As a business grows in value, so does the potential worth of the shares held by its investors. They do not have to sell a single product themselves or wait for the company to distribute profits to benefit from that appreciation. Their stake gives them a claim on the business’s future value, which they may eventually realise by selling their shares.
While Nigeria benefits from OPay’s business through jobs, wages, taxes and the economic activity it generates, these benefits are not the same as ownership. This is what Nigeria’s technology ambitions must confront.
From Building Companies to Building Ownership
Where a company’s holding structure is based can shape who invests in it, how employees are rewarded and how easily shareholders can realise the value of their holdings.
For Nigeria to give more of its people a meaningful opportunity to participate in the success of its technology businesses, three questions deserve attention.
First, can a company be built in Lagos and attract investors in New York without its founders feeling compelled to place the holding company elsewhere?
Nigeria’s digital economic zone is an attempt to make the country a more attractive base for internationally investable businesses. But incorporation alone is not enough. Nigeria must also offer the legal predictability and investor confidence that make established jurisdictions such as Delaware attractive.
Second, can Nigerian savings reach Nigerian technology businesses?
As of August 2026, ₦17.8 trillion of the pension industry’s ₦31.8 trillion in assets was invested in Federal Government securities, while approximately ₦267 billion was invested in private equity. The question is whether Nigeria can create more credible channels through which domestic capital can invest in growth businesses, with appropriate safeguards for the people whose retirement savings are at stake.
Third, can successful companies raise capital at home?
The NGX Growth Board was created to give high growth businesses a route to public markets, yet no technology startup has listed on it.
OPay has obtained board and shareholder approval to pursue a secondary listing on the Nigerian Exchange following its proposed New York listing. However, the company has not announced a timeline, and the proposed listing remains subject to market conditions and regulatory requirements. Its plans offer a potential route for Nigerian investors to participate in the growth of a business that serves millions of people in the country.
Time will tell whether Nigeria can build not only successful technology companies, but also the financial and institutional structures that allow more Nigerians to own a share of their success.
Too often, the corporate architecture behind Africa’s technology ambitions sits outside the continent, shaping where investment flows, how ownership is structured and where shareholders can realise value. This is not an argument against global capital or international expansion. It is a call to make Nigerian markets more capable of supporting both the businesses being built and the ownership opportunities they create.
Businesses that serve our markets, employ our people and attract global investors are worth celebrating. Nigeria has shown that it can build technology companies of billion dollar value.
The next challenge is to build the financial and institutional structures that allow more Nigerians to share in that value. OPay’s proposed NGX listing may offer one opportunity, but the ambition must extend beyond a single company.
Nigeria should not only be where the next generation of technology giants is built. It should also be where more people have the opportunity to own a part of them.
