Nigeria’s expertise market is normally described by its issues, from unreliable infrastructure to a risky economic system. Dotun Daniel Adekunle, OPay’s chief working officer and chief expertise officer, argues that the nation’s most sturdy firms are those constructed to outlive its worst days.
“Stubbornness is a business model in Africa,” Adekunle mentioned in a keynote titled “Markets That Refuse to Break” at Moonshot by TechCabal on 28 October. A market this tough, he argued, rewards firms that preserve adapting to native situations.
On 9 October, OPay filed to list on the New York Stock Exchange. The submitting reveals income of $467.1 million within the first half of 2026, up from $197.5 million a 12 months earlier, with lending overtaking funds as its largest enterprise. Nigeria equipped 89.5% of that income, and the submitting lists credit score danger and regulation among the many primary threats to the enterprise.
Adekunle pointed to the 2023 money crunch for example. When the naira redesign left Nigerians wanting money, transfers surged and financial institution apps buckled below the load. The variety of funds on the NIBSS Instant Payment system jumped 45.5% in February 2023, whereas their complete worth fell 5.12%, as Nigerians moved small, on a regular basis spending onto transfers. OPay, Adekunle mentioned, held up due to its nationwide agent community.
“You have to adapt to the local environment, or you’ll die,” he mentioned. “Technology is designed for the local reality.”
On August 30, a pretend discover unfold on-line claiming OPay would shut down on 1 September and urging clients to withdraw their cash. Some did. OPay denied it, the Central Bank of Nigeria referred to as it false, and police arrested a girl on 4 September over the submit. “When we had the issue, we had to bring the market together because it could be you the next day,” Adekunle mentioned. “Resilience cannot be achieved alone.”
His argument is that markets not often break firms on their very own. “Fragile markets don’t break businesses, fragile assumptions do,” he mentioned. He named three assumptions builders ought to drop: that they’ll design for a mean day, that expertise can stand in for individuals, and that regulators are opponents. Regulation, he mentioned, needs to be handled as a design enter.
He closed by urging builders to deal with the world as their working system. “If you can survive Nigeria, you can survive the world,” he mentioned. “Let’s have the courage and conviction to take on the world, because if Nigeria can’t break you, the world cannot break you.”
