Opay shuts down business operations in Nigeria

By Florence Kalu

The e-commerce and payments company, OPay, has announced on Thursday, the suspension of some of its business operations in Nigeria attributing it to
harsh business environment.

The company said it is pausing some of its operations on account of government ban on them and the Covid-19 challenge. Some of its operations affected are its ride-hailing services ORide and OCar as well as the logistics service, OExpress.

In its statement on Twitter, the company attributed the demise of the business units to “the harsh business conditions which have affected many Nigerian Companies”, the COVID-19 Pandemic, the Lockdown, and the Lagos State Government ban on motorcycles.

Its mobile-payments company started ORide service in Lagos in June 2019, before raising $120 million later in the year to expand its various online services in Ghana, South Africa and Kenya.

The shareholders of the company including, Softbank Group Corp. and China’s Meituan Dianping

In a memo sent by OPay’s investors to the Nigerian team yesterday, it directed all other verticals, except payments scheme to shut down operations and all the Chinese expatriate workers to return to China as soon as possible.

The Nigerian team is said to have already set up a team tasked with the recovery of all the ORide motorcycles on the road.

The ride-hailing and logistics company suffered a set back precisely in January, when Lagos, the commercial hub and Africa’s largest economy banned all motorbike passenger service.