OPay International confident it has muscle to tap Pakistan’s market

OPay International Pte Ltd, a one-stop mobile payment service provider, believes it has enough muscle to make inroads into the untapped Pakistani market, as it seeks to expand its footprint in the country’s digital financial landscape.

Just days ago, OPay got approval from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to fully acquire FINJA Pvt Ltd, a commercially active Electronic Money Institution (EMI) licenced company.

“In a span of three months, we expect to be operating as an EMI,” Ali Mubashir Kazmi, President of OPay, told Business Recorder.

“OPay has been recognised by CNBC recently as the ‘Top 200 Global Financial Technology Companies’,” said Kazmi. “The fintech platform has a valuation of $2 billion,” he said, adding that down the line OPay intends to become a fully-fledged digital bank.

OPay provides digital payment, digital wallet, and other financial services to emerging market customers in Africa and Asia, which includes countries such as Nigeria, Egypt, and now Pakistan.

In a statement, OPay said that despite multiple challenges it remains committed to Pakistan and is desirous of replicating its performance in other markets.

“OPay’s strategy is for financial inclusion, which has a lot of space in Pakistan as it has a huge unbanked population, which we would target,” said Kazmi.

Under the EMI licence, OPay plans to create a digital eco-system comprising 1.6 million wallet users and further ramp up POS penetration by an additional 5,000 machines each year.

“Pakistan has a high demand for wallets, however, it remains unmet due to a lack of awareness regarding the product,” said Kazmi.