Paying Netflix, Spotify or a software tool every month from Nigeria has long meant a dollar card that fails at the worst moment. A new option skips the card. On 23 October, Brazilian payments company EBANX said it is the first global payments company to go live with OPay Direct Debit, a recurring payment option inside the OPay wallet.
It works like a standing order for subscriptions. The customer gives a one-time approval in the OPay app. After that, the merchant can collect each renewal without the customer present and without re-entering payment details. EBANX offers it at checkout to the global businesses it processes for, from streaming services to software tools, according to the release.
Why the card has been the problem
The release, which carries EBANX's own analysis of outside data, puts the gap plainly:
- 95% of online spending in Nigeria comes from people without a credit card, according to World Data Lab figures analysed by EBANX.
- Digital wallets and bank transfers make up 65% of e-commerce volume, according to PCMI data analysed by EBANX.
- OPay says it has 40 million monthly active users, about one in three Nigerian adults. That is a company figure.
"Nigeria is expected to remain Africa's largest and most strategic digital market," said Eduardo de Abreu, EBANX's chief product officer. OPay's chief commercial officer, Elizabeth Wang, said the partnership "isn't just processing transactions".
The release does not name the first merchants to switch it on. EBANX did something similar in South Africa, where Canva became the first international company to take recurring payments through Capitec Pay.
