OPay approved to issue prepaid cards in Egypt. Nigeria could be next

Chinese fast growing fintech company, Opay, has been approved by the Central Bank of Egypt to issue prepaid cards through their OPay application.

Opay‘s Head of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships in the region, Mahmoud Khedr, disclosed this in a press release on Thursday.

The development, according to Mahmoud, comes in partnership with Masria Digital Payments, a software company that supports banks, financial institutions, and fintech startups with end-to-end financial solutions.

Mahmoud, while expressing excitement, told the media that the initiative was to create alternative avenue for users seeking payment options.

He said: “We are very pleased to cooperate with Masria Digital Payments to issue prepaid cards, as it provides more than one payment option, which will greatly contribute to continuing our endeavors to provide the best non-banking services to our customers through smooth and easy prepaid cards.”

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Prepaid cards vs. Regular cards

Use of a prepaid card, as opposed to regular debit cards, do not require users to open a bank account.

Also, while the amount of money users have available depends on the balance of a corresponding checking account, a prepaid debit card is fixed and reduces upon spending.

Any chances in Nigeria?

The approval by the Egypt Central Bank is encouraging, and has the tendency to influence other markets including Nigeria and Pakistan where the heavily Chinese-backed venture has its customer base measured in millions.

While Nigerians can be particularly picky in making choices, a good offering, as well as perks, that beats regular rates offered on most debit cards by existing banks can determine its successes.

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