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Claim: Kemi Olunloyo posts that OPay is allegedly about to collapse, and tells people to withdraw their money.
VERDICT: FALSE! The official account for OPay has debunked the rumour. The video used to depict OPay crashing is from 2021.
Full Text
OPay is a one-stop mobile-based platform for payments, transfers, loans, savings, and other essential services. Currently, OPay boasts over 35+ million registered app users and 500,000 agents in Nigeria who rely on OPay’s services to send and receive money, pay bills, and many more.
A Nigerian Journalist, Kemi Olunloyo, posted on her Facebook page that OPay is allegedly about to collapse and that people should start withdrawing their money from the scheme. This is a result of footage that has been circulating on WhatsApp.
The video shows an anchor on TVC talking about protesters storming the Lagos branch of the bank, complaining of people removing money from their accounts. They complained of money mysteriously disappearing from their accounts to other bank accounts, even to buy airtime without authorisation.
Ms Olunloyo’s Facebook post has garnered 1,300 reactions and 148 shares since the post was uploaded on Oct. 2, 2023.
The virality of the post, the financial institution, and the personalities involved are why DUBAWA decided to verify this claim.
Verification
We analysed the video used and discovered it was an old video by TVC News on Aug. 23, 2021.
“Agents of the financial institution, Opay, stormed the company’s office in Lagos today protesting unauthorized emptying of their accounts with the institution. The protesters say the act began about a week ago with ambiguous but little withdrawals,” the video caption reads.
We visited the bank’s X (Twitter) account and saw that they had posted a disclaimer about the recirculated video.
In their statement, they wrote:
“OPay is Safe & Secure 🔐. Your funds and accounts are safe with OPay ALWAYS! Kindly ignore fake news and posts. Thank you for trusting OPay.”
Ms Olunloyo also updated the post on her Facebook Page, stating that the bank reached out to her with a statement and described the issue as the work of “mischievous people, out to feed the public with outdated information.”
Conclusion
The rumour carried by Ms Olunloyo’s on Opay crashing is false. The video circulating on WhatsApp as evidence dates back to 2021. The Bank has also cleared the air via its social media account.
