Standard Bank Group, the parent company of Stanbic IBTC Holdings, has announced plans to invest up to $200 million in Nigeria’s leading fintech company, OPay, ahead of its proposed listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Standard Bank is seeking to acquire a stake of up to 4.99 per cent in the digital payments platform, according to its registration statement filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
According to the financial services group, the proposed investment would place it at the centre of OPay’s planned initial public offering (IPO), while creating opportunities for broader collaboration in digital banking, payments, lending and cross-border transactions.
Stanbic Africa Holdings, a subsidiary of Standard Bank Group, has signed a subscription agreement to acquire shares in OPay through a private placement alongside the IPO, subject to the completion of the offering and relevant regulatory approvals.
Under the agreement disclosed in OPay’s Form F-1 registration statement, the investment will be capped at the lowest of $200 million, 0.98 per cent of Standard Bank Group’s qualifying regulatory capital, excluding unappropriated profit, or the value of a 4.99 per cent stake in OPay calculated at the IPO price. The filing does not disclose the number of shares to be offered or the proposed price range.
OPay’s financial disclosures provide insight into the growth attracting the South African lender.
The company’s revenue climbed to $536.3 million in 2025 from $205.7 million in 2024, while it swung from a net loss of $50.8 million to a net profit of $72.5 million over the same period.
The growth continued in the six months ended June 30, 2026, when revenue more than doubled to $467.1 million from the corresponding period a year earlier. Net income also rose sharply to $90.9 million from $21.7 million.
The figures highlight OPay’s expanding earnings and growing payments and financial services business, although its significant dependence on Nigeria exposes it to changes in the country’s regulatory and operating environment.
Nigeria accounted for 89.5 per cent of OPay’s revenue in the first half of 2026, according to the filing.
The company reported 50.1 million monthly active users at the end of July, while its gross transaction value reached $339.1 billion in the first half of the year. Gross transaction value represents the total value of payments, transactions and loans processed through the platform, rather than the revenue generated from those activities.
OPay also disclosed that its active users in Nigeria represented approximately 66.1 per cent of all active users of financial applications tracked by app-monitoring company DataSparkle during the first half of 2026.
The scale of its Nigerian operations underscores both the commercial opportunities available to Standard Bank and the concentration risk associated with the proposed investment.
Beyond acquiring a stake in OPay, Standard Bank is positioning itself for a potentially deeper commercial relationship with the fintech company.
Standard Bank of South Africa is one of four representatives of the IPO underwriters, alongside Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and China International Capital Corporation. B. Riley Securities and Needham & Company are acting as co-managers.
The filing also disclosed that Lungisa Fuzile, chief executive of Standard Bank’s Africa Regions business and a former director-general of South Africa’s National Treasury, will join OPay’s board as a non-executive director once the private placement closes. Fuzile previously led Standard Bank South Africa between 2018 and 2024.
The two companies have identified potential areas of collaboration, including expanding digital banking services across African markets, distributing selected Standard Bank products through OPay’s application and merchant network, and developing opportunities in merchant acquiring, payments, lending and remittances.
They are also exploring the development of jointly designed financial products to broaden access to financial services and support cross-border commerce.
However, the proposed collaboration remains non-binding. A memorandum of understanding signed on August 14 does not require either party to implement any specific initiative, with individual projects subject to definitive agreements and regulatory approvals.
Standard Bank Group Chief Executive, Sim Tshabalala, said the bank’s financial services expertise and extensive African footprint complemented OPay’s digital financial services platform and merchant ecosystem, creating opportunities to expand financial inclusion and facilitate cross-border trade.
The proposed investment also aligns with Standard Bank’s broader growth strategy, outlined at its recent capital markets day.
OPay has applied to list American depositary shares on the NYSE under the proposed ticker symbol OPAY. The securities represent interests in the company’s ordinary shares.
The proposed offering’s valuation and final size remain undisclosed in the registration statement, although earlier reports cited a potential valuation of approximately $4 billion. However, the filing does not confirm that figure as OPay’s IPO valuation.
The proposed listing and Standard Bank’s planned investment will therefore depend on the offering’s final terms, the completion of the private placement and the necessary regulatory approvals. For Standard Bank, the transaction offers an opportunity to gain exposure to one of Africa’s rapidly expanding digital financial services businesses while exploring commercial synergies across its continental network.