OPay Digital Services Limited, one of Nigeria’s biggest digital payments companies, paid N945.7 million in regulatory fines between 2023 and 2025 for breaches involving anti-money laundering controls, terrorism financing, customer due diligence, data protection and other regulatory requirements, raising fresh questions about its corporate governance and readiness for the international capital market.
The disclosures, contained in the company’s audited financial statements and sighted by InsideBusinessNG, come at an embarrassing time for the fintech, which recently abandoned plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) after an undisclosed foreign regulatory inquiry disrupted its proposed $304 million initial public offering.
The developments put the spotlight on the compliance architecture of a company whose rapid expansion has made it a major player in Nigeria’s digital financial services industry, serving millions of customers through mobile money transfers, payments and other financial services.
While regulatory fines do not, by themselves, establish criminal wrongdoing, the frequency and range of the infractions raise questions about the effectiveness of OPay’s internal controls, particularly its ability to meet the increasingly demanding regulatory standards expected of a financial institution seeking international investors.
The IPO setback is particularly significant because OPay had appeared to be on the verge of a landmark international capital-market debut. The company had planned to offer 16 million American Depositary Shares (ADSs) at $19 apiece, the bottom of its proposed $19–$21 price range, implying a valuation of approximately $4 billion.
The offering was expected to raise $304 million, with the shares scheduled to trade on the NYSE under the ticker symbol OPAY. The company had already held its listing ceremony at the exchange, and its underwriting agreement had been signed on October 29, 2026.
However, on October 30, OPay and its underwriters mutually terminated the agreement following the disclosure of a regulatory inquiry in an unidentified foreign jurisdiction. Its shares never commenced trading.
Although OPay described the jurisdiction as immaterial to its core business and insisted that the inquiry should not be interpreted as a reflection of its financial condition, operational integrity or regulatory standing, the withdrawal was a major setback to its international expansion and fundraising ambitions.
A subsequent Bloomberg report, citing people familiar with the matter, identified Chinese regulators as being behind the inquiry. The report said OPay had no operations or revenue in China, with its connection to the country being its Chinese founder, Zhou Yahui. Neither the precise nature of the inquiry nor the regulator’s concerns had been officially disclosed by OPay.
The abandoned flotation also deprived OPay of an opportunity to establish a public-market valuation and subject itself to the transparency, disclosure and continuing scrutiny associated with a major US stock exchange listing.
A fintech success story with a complicated regulatory record
Founded in 2018, OPay grew from a mobile payments platform into a major digital financial services provider, offering transfers, payments, savings and loans. Its growth was fuelled by substantial international venture capital, including a $50 million funding round in 2019, a further $120 million later that year and a $400 million investment round in 2021 led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. The 2021 funding valued the company at approximately $2 billion, making it one of Africa’s most prominent fintech unicorns.
Its proposed $4 billion IPO valuation represented a doubling of that 2021 valuation, underlining the scale of investor expectations surrounding its Nigerian-led payments business.
According to its IPO prospectus, OPay had approximately 50 million monthly active users as of July 2026. Its scale makes the effectiveness of its regulatory compliance systems particularly important, given the volume of financial transactions and personal information handled by the platform.
Breakdown of regulatory penalties
According to the audited accounts, the regulatory sanctions accumulated over three financial years, involving the CBN and other government agencies.
In 2023, OPay paid N26 million to the CBN for violations relating to money laundering and terrorism financing. The company incurred a further N113.7 million penalty in 2024 for recurring breaches in the same regulatory area.
Other sanctions included N197 million for violations of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020; N10 million for breaches of CBN Customer Due Diligence requirements; N2 million for violations of CBN Consumer Protection Regulations; N125 million imposed by the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) for breaches of the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023; N7 million imposed by the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) for advertising regulation violations; and N1 million imposed by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) for breaches of the Companies and Allied Matters Act.
In 2025, the company also paid N464 million to the CBN for violating the Framework for Mobile Money Services in Nigeria 2021.
The range of infractions is significant. They extend beyond technical or administrative shortcomings to areas central to the integrity of financial services, including the prevention of illicit financial flows, customer identification, consumer protection and the safeguarding of personal data.
The recurring money laundering and terrorism financing violations are particularly troubling. Financial technology companies are increasingly important channels for payments and financial inclusion, but their rapid growth also exposes the financial system to risks associated with identity fraud, suspicious transactions and the movement of illicit funds.
The CBN’s anti-money laundering and customer due diligence requirements are therefore not mere bureaucratic formalities. They are fundamental safeguards designed to prevent financial institutions from becoming conduits for criminal activities.
Similarly, the NDPC penalty underscores the growing regulatory importance of protecting customers’ personal information as digital financial platforms accumulate increasingly large databases of sensitive information.
Questions over internal controls and investor confidence
The cumulative penalties raise questions about whether OPay’s compliance and risk-management structures have kept pace with its extraordinary business expansion.
For a fintech with tens of millions of users and ambitions of becoming a leading financial services provider across emerging markets, effective compliance must be embedded in its operations rather than treated as an afterthought to business growth.
The issue is particularly relevant because international investors and regulators increasingly scrutinise the governance structures, beneficial ownership, financial controls and regulatory histories of companies seeking access to global capital markets.
An IPO prospectus also exposes a company to an unusually high level of disclosure scrutiny. Prospective investors need confidence not only in its revenue growth and profitability but also in the quality of its governance, regulatory relationships and ability to manage operational risks.
OPay’s abandoned offering does not establish that its Nigerian regulatory violations caused the foreign inquiry. There is no publicly established evidence linking the two developments.
Nevertheless, their proximity raises legitimate questions about the company’s wider compliance environment and the due diligence required to reassure international investors.
The failed flotation is also a reminder that a strong growth story and an impressive valuation cannot substitute for regulatory confidence.
OPay’s immediate challenge is to demonstrate that its compliance architecture is robust enough to support the scale of its operations and withstand the scrutiny of regulators and international investors.
