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OPAY Topshot, I.K. ODIASE Explains
Talk about a Fintech company which has become a household in Nigeria and Opay comes to mind. Opay is very popular among Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. There is hardly any retail outlet that don’t have accounts with Opay. The company is no doubt a force when it comes to mobile-based payments. Within 6 years of its establishment in Nigeria, Opay which is a company OPay licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria and insured by the NDIC with the same insurance coverage as traditional banks, has grown in lips and bounds. The company is renowned for its efficient and reliable network. No wonder, more and more people are opening their accounts with Opay on a daily basis.
The company is already living up to its mission which is to make financial services more inclusive through technology. Opay offers a wide range of payment services, including money transfer, bill payment, airtime & data purchase, card service, and merchant payments, among others.
City People JAMIU ABUBAKAR (08085185886) had a chat with the Director of Partnerships at OPay, I.K Odiase where he revealed how the company has sustained its operations over the years to remain the best choice of Fintech company for customers across the country. Below are excerpts:
We are quite excited about it at Opay. For us it’s all about collaboration with stakeholders. Some of the new initiative and key things about Opay is all around security KYCs are controlled. There have been instances which an issue in the industry about increased fraudulent activities and the regulators have taken a strong hold of this. They have come up with policies around KYCs and an insistence of NIN and BVN on all customers’ accounts. Opay is quite happy about it and we are going to implement some of these policies to the later. We are always collaborating with the media to sensitize customers so that everybody will do the needful to see that they remain loyal to the brand.
How safe is customers’ money deposit into Opay’s account?
Every fund in Opay is safe. There are sometimes cases where we hear people say that remove your money from Opay because it is not safe. I want to say every depositors’ fund in Opay is very safe because those funds sit with the deposit money band and commercial banks that many of us know today. And we are all regulated by the Central Bank of Nigeria. So as long as those funds sit with the deposit money banks, they are very safe with the banks.
How would you describe the experience of Opay rendering Fintech services in NIGERIA despite the economic uncertainties in the country?
Our experience of doing business in Nigeria has been quite good. We thank the government for the cooperation so far. The challenges are there but the government have shown understanding the regulators have shown understanding we believe that more progress would be made. Opay has come to stay. We have done more than 5 years and we look at more years to come in doing good business in Nigeria. We look forward to building and improving technology. Our mandate is driving financial inclusion through technology.
Can you tell about a few of the many achievements of Opay in Nigeria?
Opay has been able to grow a good customer base serving millions of customers today, millions of agents and merchants, solving challenges around payments. So we are able to save that gap, creating jobs for millions of Nigerians. Creating wealth for merchants and agents. We have done quite a lot around creating jobs.
Looking into the nearest future, what should customers be expecting from Opay?
Looking at what we have done in the past, there’s no fear for the future. In the years to come, we are going to achieve a lot. We are going to make some impacts by embarking on more Corporate Social Responsibility, building more products and solutions to meet the needs of the consumers. We will continue to do our research and see where there are gaps and make sure that we fill those gaps around payment.
