A claim that Opay is the sixth largest bank in Nigeria has circulated on X.
An X user, @puremind__, said that Opay comes behind First Bank Plc, United Bank for Africa (UBA), Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB), Access Bank Plc and Zenith Bank Plc.
He posted the claim on March 14, 2025 with a caption thus:
“Some of you don’t understand that Opay is the 6th Largest Bank in Nigeria after the FUGAZ that’s why you always open your mouth to yarn rubbish.
“What does your regular Bank have over them?”
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The post has generated more than 650,000 views with over 1,000 reposts and more than 9,000 likes as of March 19, 2025.
CLAIM
Opay is the 6th largest bank in Nigeria.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is FALSE.
Banks are licensed financial institutions that receive deposits and provide credit to customers. They are the bedrock of every economy and are of the utmost importance as their operations help stabilise countries and ensure a robust financial system.
Opay is a one-stop financial service platform for payments, transfers, savings, loans and other essential services for users and also provides POS service for agents and acquiring service for merchants.
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Established in 2018 with a license from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and insured by Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) with the same insurance coverage as other commercial banks, Opay reportedly has millions of users, agents and merchants in Nigeria currently.
The FactCheckHub reviewed the various rankings of the largest banks in Nigeria and we couldn’t find any that placed Opay as among the top 10 largest banks in Nigeria.
For instance, Nairametrics ranked the largest banks in Nigeria based on their total assets and number of branches in 2023. According to the ranking, GTB is the sixth largest bank in Nigeria with a total asset of N8.79 trillion and 237 bank branches and 33 eBranches after EcoBank, First Bank, Zenith, UBA, and Access Bank which ranked first on the list.
Others in the top 10 were Fidelity, Stanbic IBTC, First City Monument Bank (FCMB), and Union Bank respectively.
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The FactCheckHub also reviewed the latest ranking of the top 100 banks in Africa. The top 10 in Nigeria among them are FBN Holdings (First Bank), Access Bank, Zenith Bank, UBA, GTB, Ecobank, Union Bank, FCMB, Stanbic IBTC, and Fidelity Bank. Opay is not on the list at all.
Another report by Proshare in December 2024 shows that EcoBank, Access Holdings, UBA, Zenith, FBN Holdings, GTB, Fidelity, Stanbic IBTC, First City Monument Bank, and Union Bank are the top 10 largest banks in Nigeria by their assets size.
THE VERDICT
The claim that Opay is the 6th largest bank in Nigeria is FALSE, as publicly available records show that the bank is not among the top 10 largest banks in the country.
Nurudeen Akewushola is a fact-checker with FactCheckHub. He has authored several fact checks which have contributed to the fight against information disorder. You can reach him via nyahaya@icirnigeria.org and @NurudeenAkewus1 via Twitter.
