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TechInAfrica — A provider of payment, ride-hailing, food delivery and loan services OPay, has been acquired approval by Nigeria’s Apex Bank Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to commence international money transfer in Nigeria.
With the approval, OPay will start facilitating remittance B2B, B2P, and P2P remittance services into Nigeria. This is following the earlier announced $50 million fundraised from major venture capitalists several months ago.
“The plan is to distort the remittance space and ensure that international money transfer into Nigeria is safer, faster and more affordable,” said Kunle Olamuyiwa, Director of Remittances Services at OPay.
With OPay’s infrastructure in Nigeria, it will be easier and faster for global remittance companies to partner with OPay to help their customers to receive money from their business partners, customers and loved ones directly into their OPay wallet and any bank account or mobile wallet in Nigeria. Also, recipients can go cash out their funds from their OPay wallets at any of over 100,000 OPay mobile money agents in Nigeria.
“We are already working with major global remittance companies around the world and will start facilitating remittances to Nigeria with these partners, ensuring the best fees and exchange rates, speed and security,” Kunle explained.
Regarding the benefit for recipients of money transfers in Nigeria, Kunle said,“ There is a plan to commence a big-bang promo in December with lots of prices for recipients of money transfer who receive their money directly into their OPay wallets. I can only advise everyone who has families around the world to get an OPay Wallet.”
“They will get better value for these funds doing transfers to any bank, paying their bills, buying food and also using our on-demand transport services i.e. Oride, OBus, and Otrike. And on top of all, they can channel unused funds to OWealth and earn interest on it daily. It is indeed better timed for recipients of international money transfers in Nigeria.”
OPay launched its mobile payment service in August 2018, creating an infrastructure on which the company is now also adding new services.
The agent-centric mobile payment operation aimed at reaching the massive unbanked population of Nigeria. Currently, OPay has expanded into other verticals like ride-hailing (ORide and OTrike), online food delivery (OFood), as well as facilitating access to third-party provided microloans (OKash) and wealth management (OWealth) and there will be more to come in the future.
Last July, OPay secured $50 million in funding with lead investors including Sequoia China, IDG Capital, and Source Code Capital. Also joining the funding round was the Norwegian browser company and the startup’s founder, Opera Limited.
Source: venturesafrica.com
