Indications are that OPay, one of Africa’s leading fintech giants, has secured the blessing of its board and shareholder to pursue a secondary listing on Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX), after completing its planned primary listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) where it is targeting a $4 billion valuation.
The planned listing on the NGX, subject to what it termed market conditions and applicable regulatory approvals, observers say, aligns with the long-term advocacy of the Nigerian Exchange Group Plc (NGX Group), for leading Nigerian businesses to list on the domestic bourse thereby expanding opportunities for local ownership and wealth redistribution.
According to disclosures in OPay’s Form F-1 registration statement filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on October 9, 2026, the company is seeking an initial public offering (IPO) of its American Depositary Shares (ADSs) and has applied to list on the NYSE.
The development comes barely two months after the Board and Management of NGX Group, led by its Chairman, Alhaji Umaru Kwairanga, and Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Temi Popoola, met with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, where they urged for a deliberate national strategy to encourage leading Nigerian businesses, particularly technology companies, to list domestically or pursue dual listings.
During the August 6 engagement, Popoola specifically identified OPay among the major fintech companies whose participation in the domestic capital market could broaden investment opportunities for Nigerians. He anchored his proposition on the need to ensure that companies generating significant economic value from Nigeria also provide opportunities for domestic investors to participate in their growth and long-term wealth creation.
The NGX Group CEO has consistently advocated the need for Nigerians to move beyond being just consumers, employees and users of products and services to becoming shareholders in the businesses driving economic growth. For example, Daily Independent recalls that OPay opened for payments services in Nigeria in 2018 after the December 2017 acquisition of Paycom Nigeria Limited, one of the early companies granted a Mobile Money Operator (MMO) license by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and originally owned by the Telnet Group. Outside of Nigeria, OPay also operates in Indonesia, Egypt and Pakistan, but Nigeria accounted for 89.5% of its revenue in the 2026 half year.
For a company such as OPay, whose growth is supported by a substantial Nigerian customer base, Popoola stressed, a domestic listing could provide an opportunity for its users to participate in its ownership and share in the value it creates.
Also, Kwairanga has also emphasised at different fora the capital market’s role as a critical national platform for financing enterprise, supporting industrialisation and driving inclusive prosperity.
For the duo, from this perspective, attracting leading Nigerian businesses to the Exchange is not merely about increasing listings, but mobilising long-term capital to support business growth while strengthening the link between corporate success and national economic development.
OPay’s formal disclosure gives greater substance to this proposition. While its proposed US IPO would provide access to international capital, analysts believe the planned secondary listing on NGX could establish an additional pathway for Nigerian investors to participate in the company’s growth, bringing domestic ownership into a business with a significant presence in Nigeria’s digital financial services sector.
The potential significance extends beyond OPay. Nigeria has produced several technology-driven businesses with substantial operations, customer bases and economic footprints, yet opportunities for domestic investors to participate in their ownership remain limited. Encouraging these businesses to access the Nigerian capital market could help bridge that gap, deepen market liquidity, broaden the Exchange’s sectoral representation and connect more Nigerians to the wealth generated by the country’s expanding digital economy.
The development reinforces also reinforces the the relevance of the NGX Group’s ongoing engagement with policymakers, regulators and corporate leaders to position the capital market as a central platform for long-term capital formation.
The Group says its agenda goes beyond attracting new listings to building a market capable of supporting enterprise growth, mobilising domestic and international capital, and expanding public participation in Nigeria’s economic development as shown in its recent engagements across Africa and beyond.
Although OPay has secured the necessary corporate approvals to pursue a Nigerian listing, the transaction would depend on the completion of its New York listing and compliance with applicable Nigerian regulatory and market requirements. Nevertheless, the company’s decision calls renewed attention to a central message from NGX Group’s engagement with President Tinubu: Nigeria’s ambition to build a globally competitive economy must be matched by opportunities for Nigerians to invest in the businesses driving that growth.
At that meeting in the Villa, the NGX team had hammered on the need to “establish a deliberate programme that seeks to privatize and list commercially viable government assets and interest, beginning g with Indorama Corporation, the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), Eleme Petrochemicals, and selected (subsidiaries of the) Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited holdings.”
As more Nigerian-focused companies pursue international expansion and access to global capital, the opportunity is to ensure that their success also translates into broader domestic ownership, deeper capital markets and more inclusive wealth creation.
