I never really knew how to receive money with PayPal in Nigeria “the right way” which is why I currently have about $100 of my hard-earned funds pending, waiting for an approval from the payment platform before I can commence withdrawal – THIS SUCKS!
If you find yourself in the same shoes as me, then this post is for you…
Today you’re going to learn a very quick and easy way on how to receive money via PayPal in Nigeria. You’re also going to learn more about the Flutterwave PayPal Nigeria trend that’s been up for a while now, some conspiracies behind owning a PayPal account in Nigeria and many more…
Let’s dive right in!
Why was Nigeria Blocked from Receiving Payment with PayPal?
When asked why some countries like Nigeria were blocked from receiving money with PayPal, their most common reply was:
PayPal claimed that due to the complexities of global finance (expansion), it wasn’t possible for certain countries to receive money on their platform, however, analysis believes it could be one of these three reasons:
- Poor banking systems
- Government policies that try to control foreign exchange
- Internet fraud
For most Africans, there were lots of sentiments that these companies and merchants could only take our money, but we can’t receive any from them. In fact, a petition was actually raised that PayPal should allow Nigerians to have accounts that they can use in receiving payment, and for one, PayPal actually listened and opened up the service a bit.
In fact, in 2014, they tried to allow inflows very briefly, but merchants were not included, and since then, we’ve since services like Xoom come up to help, even Flutterwave tried it with their Rave platform in 2017, but all went to no avail!
Keep Reading: 17 Legit Ways to Make Money in Nigeria Online…
The only few African countries that had the most accessible features of PayPal were South Africa and Kenya, which led most Nigerian merchants to create accounts using these countries’ location just to be able to receive payment for their services or product sales using the PayPal payment platform.
But this wasn’t 100% legit!
In fact, so many merchants have lost a lot of money due to issues coming up in one of their supposed accounts, and since it’s not 100% legit, they won’t be able to contact PayPal’s support and customer reps in helping to resolve such issues.
I for one have been a victim of this in so many scenarios; For example, I received a $100 payment on one of my South African PayPal accounts for a writing gig I did for a client, but due to the fact that I’d not been using that my PayPal account for 2 months plus, and for that reason, I’ve had my funds held for a week plus now for further verification of the transaction.
In general, so many Nigerians have lost thousands of dollars of their hard-earned funds to PayPal due to these reasons!
But the pressing question now in most minds is…
Is PayPal Now Allowed in Nigeria?
On March 15th, 2021, Flutterwave made a huge announcement that they’ve partnered with PayPal to enable Africans to receive payments from their over 377 million customers.
PayPal in 2020 had a massive $936 billion payment volume, which was practically nearly a trillion dollars, but Africa, for the most part, was excluded, and that’s what Flutterwave is trying to solve.
Tech Cabal had this to say:
Do you see how none of these includes Nigeria?
But, we’re still far from over in this Flutterwave PayPal Nigeria conspiracy…
Now, to properly verify whether or not that PayPal is truly accepted here in Nigeria, YouTube’s superstar, Fisayo Fosudo conducted the following test experiment:
The conclusion from the above experiment shows that Nigerians still can’t receive money via PayPal but Flutterwave merchants that are in Nigeria can receive dollars with PayPal via their Flutterwave store.
So, how do I receive money through PayPal in Nigeria?
How to Receive Money with PayPal in Nigeria?
Flutterwave’s newly integrated feature Pay with PayPal now lets regular individuals in Nigeria who are looking for how to receive money with PayPal in Nigeria be actually able to do so, quick and easy!
Although this new feature is only open to existing and newly registered businesses, the company promises to make it available to freelancers, NGOs, event owners, etc in the coming weeks.
Learning how to receive money with PayPal in Nigeria involves 2 basic steps:
- Registering as a merchant on Flutterwave
- Enabling the Pay with PayPal integrated feature
Now, let’s learn really how to receive money with PayPal in Nigeria using Flutterwave…
Step #1: How to Register on Flutterwave as a Merchant
If you are new to the Flutterwave platform as a merchant in Nigeria, you can start by creating an account on the Flutterwave official website.
In the process of confirming your email, you will be required to choose the kind of service you will be using your account for.
To continue the process of registering on Flutterwave as a merchant, you’ll be required to provide the following:
- Your business name
- Company’s account number
- Address
- Website
- BVN
- Tax Identification Number (TIN)
- And means of identification
You will also be required to upload important documents that relate to the certificate of incorporation and memorandum and Articles of Association, with customers still having to confirm the number of stake they own in your business.
Step #2: How to Enable Pay with PayPal on Flutterwave
On your Flutterwave dashboard, click on Account Settings and enable all the payment options that in the resulting dashboard.
Still, on the same Account Settings page, scroll down to where it says What method of payment do you want? and choose Enable PayPal.
With that enabled, you will be able to create a payment link that you can send out to customers to make a payment with PayPal for a service rendered to them or for a product sale.
The checkout page for your customers should now look something like this:
Transaction fees range from 1.4% for local transactions and 3.8% for international transactions, which is nothing more than N2000.
You’re expected to receive your funds on your Flutterwave account between one to five days of when the transaction was being made.
Conclusion
Many analysts see this PayPal and Flutterwave partnership as a major stepping stone for Africa, especially African businesses, majorly in Nigeria too. Also, this is one good way for PayPal to minimize the complexities of global expansion as they stated.
According to analysts, e-commerce is expected to reach $29billion in Africa alone, and it will be quite bad if PayPal misses out on it.
Now I’d Love to Hear from You:
- What are your thoughts on this new Flutterwave PayPal Nigeria partnership?
- Do you think this is the right move for PayPal at this time? And why?
- And do you think PayPal is eventually going to enter Nigeria fully after a while without the event of platforms like Flutterwave?
- Have you tried using PayPal and Flutterwave as a merchant? And how did that go for you?
Let me know by leaving a comment below!
