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China’s Fintech Footprint in Africa
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China’s Fintech Footprint in Africa

With money for building African infrastructure drying up in China, the future looks brighter for fintech investments.

Aaron Mc Nicholas
The Wire China, 2024
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Recommendation

China is expanding its digital technology footprint in Africa as part of its Digital Silk Road, which seeks to improve connectivity among Europe, Africa, and Asia. This initiative differs from the typical grand-scale, high-risk infrastructure projects that China has traditionally undertaken. Journalist Aaron Mc Nicholas explores the ascent of OPay as one of many examples of China’s forays into Africa’s electronic payments business. 

Summary

China is making inroads into the digital payments business in Nigeria.

Software firm Opera debuted its digital payments service OPay in Kenya in late 2017 and launched Opay in Nigeria shortly thereafter. The company’s success derives from processing money transfers quickly and efficiently, a welcome feature in Nigeria, whose banking system has proven unreliable. A February 2023 Nigerian currency crisis caused a customer shift away from brick-and-mortar banking and toward mobile solutions like OPay’s.

Chinese billionaire Zhou Yahui, founder of the online giant Kunlun Tech, led a consortium that acquired the Norway-based Opera in 2016. Softbank then spearheaded OPay’s 2021 funding program, ...

About the Author

Aaron M. Nicholas is a Washington, DC-based journalist.

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