OPay Takes Charge in Nigeria's Battle to Combat Online Scams

Nigeria has completed one of the fastest transitions from cash to digital payments on the continent, and a new battlefront has opened in the country's financial sector, with the fight for trust taking center stage, according to leading fintech OPay, at a media parley held in Lagos on Thursday, July 16, 2026.

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The event, attended by media executives, technology analysts, and industry stakeholders, focused on how artificial intelligence, behavioural analytics, facial verification, and real-time monitoring are being deployed to protect millions of Nigerians from increasingly sophisticated fraud.

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Nigeria has emerged as one of Africa's fastest-growing digital payment markets, with mobile wallets replacing cash in markets, buses, and online stores, and SMEs depending on instant transfers to run daily operations, making digital finance the backbone of the economy.

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However, this growth has come with new risks, including identity theft, SIM-swap fraud, account takeovers, and sophisticated scam transfers, with criminals evolving as fast as the technology meant to stop them, prompting consumers to judge financial platforms not just by speed or convenience, but also by the safety of their money.

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Elizabeth Wang, Chief Commercial Officer, OPay, told journalists that consumers want to know if their money will remain safe, and the answer depends on the technology behind the app, with OPay's long-term mission being to make financial services more inclusive through technology.

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Wang added that when people trust digital financial services, they use them more confidently, and that trust becomes the foundation for economic growth, for SMEs, for families, and for the country at large, with OPay aspiring to become the most respected and trusted financial technology company that creates social value.

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Dotun Adekunle, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Technology Officer, OPay, explained that the company's product roadmap starts with customer pain, and every feature began as a customer's frustration, which OPay treats as an engineering problem waiting to be solved.

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Adekunle recalled that many Nigerians preferred cash a few years ago because digital transfers could take hours to reflect or disappear temporarily before being reversed, prompting OPay to invest in redundant payment infrastructure and automatic failover systems.

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The result is a platform where 99.9 per cent of transactions are completed successfully, with an average processing time of less than 1 second, and Adekunle noted that speed is not just about convenience, but also a security feature that reduces the window for doubt, disputes, and social engineering.

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OPay has moved away from a one-size-fits-all approach to security, instead running a risk-based model where additional checks are triggered only when unusual activity is detected, such as facial verification for high-value transactions or payments from new devices.

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Adekunle explained that this approach balances security with user experience, as customers are not interrupted at every step, but the system tightens automatically when the risk profile changes, with the goal of making security invisible when things are normal and immovable when they are not.

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A major theme of the parley was the shift from reactive to preventive security, with OPay investing in tools that stop suspicious activity in real-time, rather than waiting to reverse fraud after it happens, and the company unveiled several customer-facing features to achieve this goal.

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These features include Emergency Lock, Night Guard, Large Transaction Shield, and Anti-Scam Shield, which use machine learning and behavioural analytics to detect suspicious transfer patterns and block them before funds exit the network, with Adekunle saying that modern fraud prevention should happen before money leaves an account.

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Adekunle emphasized that AI and behavioural analysis allow OPay to see patterns humans cannot see and act in milliseconds, and that the company engineers for customer safety, reliability, and peace of mind, with a "zero scheduled downtime" policy and continuous model training.

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Chukwudinma Okafor, Chief Compliance Officer, also spoke on the company's commitment to regulatory alignment, customer education, and collaboration with law enforcement and industry bodies to tackle financial crime, with the goal of building trust and protecting customers.

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Wang noted that OPay's investment in trust extends beyond technology, with the company committing resources to financial literacy, education, innovation hubs, and community development programs, saying that the cashless economy cannot succeed without security, and security cannot succeed without inclusion.

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Industry analysts at the event agreed that Nigeria's digital economy will continue to expand rapidly, but sustained growth will depend on confidence, with every successful transaction strengthening public trust and every fraud attempt prevented reinforcing that trust.

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The consensus from the OPay parley was clear: the next phase of fintech in Nigeria will be defined not just by faster payments or bigger wallets, but by how effectively technology protects people, with the race no longer simply about stopping criminals, but about engineering trust into every transaction.