OPay, the popular Chinese-owned African fintech startup, suspended some of its operations in Nigeria. In a statement, the company confirmed that ORide, OCar and OExpress will be paused due to the harsh business conditions, during the pandemic.
A Statement From OPay. pic.twitter.com/mjvsKle6yH
— OPay (@OPay_NG) July 2, 2020
The economic challenges for OPay began february this year, when the state government of Lagos banned the operations of commercial motorcycles and tricycles in six local government areas in the state. The lockdown on March shutdown some of us its business operations nationwide. OPay plans to restructure the business focus away from rides, invest in and grow other units such as eCommerce space. OMall is an ecommerce marketplace while OTrade is a business to business trading platform. The company released two ecommerce platforms: OMall and OTrade along with FlexiFixed, a new savings product on March 31st.
ORide, OCar and OTrek ride hailing services is one part of the business and not a major part. Therefore, the restructuring has minimal impact on the whole business. During the pandemic, we have seen continued demand for our offline mobile money agency, and online digital payment, which remain the core of our business.
