A viral claim making the rounds on social media says OPay has officially surpassed First Bank to become the third-largest bank in Nigeria. The claim is framed as a dramatic story of disruptio
A viral claim making the rounds on social media says OPay has officially surpassed First Bank to become the third-largest bank in Nigeria.
The claim is framed as a dramatic story of disruption: First Bank, founded in 1894, represents over a century of banking history, while OPay, launched in 2018, represents a new generation of digital finance. The conclusion drawn is that convenience has finally defeated legacy banking.
It is an attractive narrative. It is also inaccurate.
Verdict: False
There is no evidence that OPay has overtaken First Bank to become the third-largest bank in Nigeria when measured by the standard financial indicators used to rank banks, including total assets, customer deposits and shareholder funds.
The claim appears to stem from confusion between transaction popularity and actual banking size.
A First bank branch What the numbers showBank rankings are not determined by app downloads, transaction frequency or social media popularity. Financial institutions are typically ranked using audited balance-sheet figures.
According to the figures contained in audited financial reports, Nigeria’s largest banks remain the country’s Tier-1 commercial institutions.
The rankings are approximately:
RankBankTotal Assets1Access Bank₦32.5 trillion+2UBA₦25.3 trillion+3Zenith Bank₦24.6 trillion+4First Bank (FBN Holdings)₦16.9 trillion+5GTCO₦9.6 trillion+OPay does not feature among the largest Nigerian banks by total assets or deposits, based on the figures. That alone makes the viral claim unsustainable.
If OPay had truly become the third-largest bank in Nigeria, it would need to leapfrog institutions with asset bases measured in tens of trillions of naira. There is no publicly available evidence suggesting such a development has occurred.
Part of the confusion comes from comparing institutions that operate under different business models and regulatory frameworks.
First Bank is a full commercial bank. Its operations extend beyond retail banking into corporate lending, trade finance, treasury operations, asset management and other large-scale financial services. Its balance sheet reflects decades of accumulated deposits, corporate relationships and institutional banking activities.
OPay, on the other hand, built its reputation through digital payments, mobile money services and agent banking. While it has become one of the most recognisable financial brands in Nigeria, its success is largely tied to transaction volume and accessibility rather than balance-sheet size.
But doesn’t OPay have a national licence?In simple terms, being one of the most frequently used financial apps is not the same as being one of the largest banks.
Yes.
That is another detail often cited to support the claim.
OPay However, OPay’s regulatory status differs from that of traditional commercial banks. While fintech players such as OPay, Moniepoint and others have received national regulatory approvals that allow them to operate across Nigeria, this does not automatically place them in the same category as Tier-1 commercial banks.
The distinction matters because licensing categories determine what institutions can do, how much capital they must maintain and the scale of activities they are permitted to undertake.
A National Microfinance Bank licence and a National Commercial Banking licence are not the same thing and come with different capital requirements and operational mandates.As a result, national reach should not be confused with asset size.
The part the viral claim gets rightWhile the claim that OPay has become Nigeria’s third-largest bank is unsupported by available evidence, the broader argument about disruption in the financial sector deserves attention.
OPay’s rise has been remarkable by almost any measure of consumer adoption. As of mid-2026, the fintech reportedly serves more than 45 million users, processes an annual Gross Transaction Value (GTV) of about $358 billion and records over 39 million monthly active transacting users. Its network of more than 900,000 POS agents and over one million merchants has given it one of the largest retail financial footprints in the country.
These figures help explain why many Nigerians perceive OPay as being larger than some traditional banks. For millions of consumers, particularly young people, traders and small businesses, OPay is often the financial platform they interact with most frequently. Its agents are visible in markets, neighbourhoods and commercial centres across the country, creating a level of everyday presence that rivals many established financial institutions.
However, visibility and transaction activity are not the same as bank size. The metrics that place OPay among Nigeria’s leading fintech platforms are different from the metrics used to rank commercial banks. While OPay dominates in areas such as digital payments, agency banking and transaction volume, banks are typically ranked by assets, deposits, capital and lending activities.
On those measures, First Bank and other Tier-1 lenders remain significantly larger.
Opay POS agent Nevertheless, the viral post correctly identifies a broader shift in consumer behaviour. Nigerian consumers are increasingly rewarding speed, convenience and reliability over institutional history. The rapid growth of OPay and other fintech firms has forced traditional banks to rethink digital banking, customer service and transaction efficiency.
In that sense, OPay’s success story is real, even if the claim about it becoming Nigeria’s third-largest bank is not.
ConclusionThe claim that OPay has officially surpassed First Bank to become the third-largest bank in Nigeria is false.
