OPay's profit quadruples to $90.9m as it prepares to list

Lagos — The Nigerian payments company OPay made a profit after tax of $90.87 million in the first half of 2026, more than four times the $21.71 million it made a year earlier.

Revenue rose 136.5% to $467.06 million, Nairametrics reports. The figures come from a registration statement the company filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on 9 October, ahead of a proposed listing in the United States and a planned second listing in Nigeria.

Where the money came from

Lending has overtaken payments as OPay's biggest earner.

• Income from loans it issued: $236.12 million, up 167.9%, just over half of all revenue.
• Income from payment services: $130.55 million, up 86.9%.
• New loans issued in Nigeria: $927.63 million, more than three times the $305.12 million of a year earlier.
• Borrowers in a quarter: 6.7 million, up from 3.5 million.

In Nigeria the company lends through its licensed microfinance bank. In Indonesia other lenders provide the money and OPay matches and services the loans; that business earned $41.57 million.

OPay says the payment data it holds helps it to judge borrowers.

The cost of lending

The same filing shows the risk.

• The charge for loans it expects not to be repaid rose 210.3% to $118.36 million.
• Loans written off came to $113.15 million, already more than in the whole of 2025.
• At the end of June, 27.4% of what borrowers owed was overdue. That share was down from 34.2% in December.

The profit figure is stated after those charges. The company has tightened lending to consumers and moved towards loans to merchants, which it considers lower risk.

Nairametrics concludes that the case for investors depends on whether OPay can sustain its earnings and whether the listing price reflects the lending risk.

Source: Nairametrics, reporting by Idika Aja, 13 October 2026.