Police has shut down the office of the online payment portal, OPay. The Kano branch of the startup was closed down during a raid by the State police command.
According to the spokesman of the Police Command, DSP Abdullahi Haruna Kiyawa, OPay was accused of non compliance with the rules and regulations of the state government.
Kiyawa said that the order of the closure was received from the Kano State Government after Opay refused to comply with the rules set for it to operate in the state.
The police officers were said to have stormed the office located at Lodge road in Kano during the early hours of Thursday. All the staff of the company and commercial tricycle operators known as Adaidaita Sahu were ordered to leave the premises with immediate effect as the Police officials stated that whosoever failed to comply would be arrested.
The commercial operators were reportedly planning to settle their balance for the previous night’s work when the police arrived and dispersed them.
Although the State government is yet to announce the exact reasons why the company’s office was shut down, there are speculations in the media space that the shutdown was as a result of non-compliance to tax.
It is a payment platform developed by Opera Software. The platform enables users to shop and pay for services and products through their phones. OPay is also the parent company of the ride-hailing service, ORide which is available on the OPay mobile application.
OPay is currently available as an Android application and supports card payments with Mastercard and Visa, as well as transfers from banking apps. It is a subsidiary of Opera Software, the maker of Opera Mini.
