OPay H1 2026 Profit Hits $90.9M as Lending Leads

In Short

• OPay posted $467.06 million revenue in H1 2026, up 136.5% year on year.
• Profit after tax rose to $90.87 million from $21.71 million.
• Lending income reached $236.12 million, higher than payment services income of $130.55 million.
• Expected credit losses climbed to $118.36 million, up 210.3%.

What Happened

OPay reported a sharp jump in revenue and profit for the first half of 2026, and the numbers show that lending is now its biggest income line.

In a registration statement filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on October 9, OPay said total revenue rose to $467.06 million, from $197.48 million a year earlier. Profit after tax more than quadrupled to $90.87 million.

Loan income grew 167.9% to $236.12 million, making up about 50.6% of total revenue. Payments income also grew, up 86.9% to $130.55 million, but it accounted for a smaller share at 27.9%.

OPay said it earns credit income in two ways. In Nigeria, it issues loans through its licensed microfinance bank subsidiary, which means it earns the interest but also carries the repayment risk. In Indonesia, it arranges loans funded by third-party lenders, which is closer to a marketplace model where OPay connects borrowers and lenders and helps with servicing.

Nigeria is driving most of the credit business. New loans issued in Nigeria more than tripled to $927.63 million in H1 2026, up from $305.12 million a year earlier. Quarterly unique borrowers also rose to 6.7 million from 3.5 million.

Why It Matters

For users and investors, the key takeaway is that OPay is starting to look as much like a digital lender as a payments company. That can boost revenue fast, but it can also raise risk when more customers default.

OPay’s filing shows that credit costs are rising alongside earnings. Expected credit-loss expenses, which is the amount the company expects it may not recover from borrowers, increased 210.3% to $118.36 million. That is about $25 in expected losses for every $100 of revenue, higher than the previous year.

This matters ahead of OPay’s proposed US listing and a planned Nigerian secondary listing. Public market investors will likely watch whether loan growth stays profitable after defaults, and whether the payments business continues to support underwriting, which is using transaction data to estimate who can repay.