PayPal signs "ten of thousands" customers in Nigerian
launch
Tue Jul 22, 2014 7:14pm BST
By Chijioke Ohuocha
LAGOS (Reuters) - PayPal has signed up "tens of
thousand" of Nigerians in its first week of operating in
Africa's biggest economy, with consumers already
purchasing items from Britain, China and the United
States via its online platform, a company official said.
E-commerce remains in its infancy in most of Africa but
is growing exponentially with the advent of online
retailers such as Jumia, partly owned by South African
phone operator MTN, and a growing middle class with
money to spend.
Citizens of Africa's most populous nation could not buy
goods directly from foreign merchants before the launch
by PayPal, the payments unit of online auctioneer eBay
Inc.
"We have seen great uptake by Nigerians ... in terms of
coverage," Malvina Goldfeld, PayPal's head of business
development for sub-Saharan Africa, said in Lagos on
Tuesday.
PayPal entered Nigeria and 10 other nations last month,
providing online payment alternatives for consumers via
mobile phones or PCs in markets often blighted by
financial fraud. The new markets bring the number of
countries PayPal serves to 203.
Goldfeld said that Paypal secured a few deals with
electronics suppliers in China and Dubai ahead of its
launch and that it had partnered with Nigerian lender
First Bank, which has more than 10.5 million
customers.
ELECTRONICS AND FASHION
PayPal launched its platform in South Africa four years
ago, Kenya last year and now Nigeria, Goldfeld said,
giving the company access to shoppers across 40 sub-
saharan African countries.
Goldfeld said the biggest interest has been in products
from the United States, Britain and China, adding:
"People are buying everything ... (but) there's definitely
a concentration in electronics and fashion."
Online retailer Jumia told Reuters in April it had 100,000
Nigerian customer accounts and sales were increasing
by 15 percent a month
However, worries over internet security and online fraud
have held back e-commerce growth in Nigeria, where
63 million people have active internet data subscriptions
but only 1 percent of them make online transactions,
First Bank said, noting that online purchases are
expected to reach $1 billion this year.
Though challenges remain - including abysmal
infrastructure, port delays, other supply chain woes and
the task of persuading shoppers to trust websites with
their bank details - Goldfeld says PayPal's reach will
help to speed improvements.
"A lot of the merchants that we work with ... already
ship to Nigeria. I think that the growth of e-commerce
will push the logistics customers to up their game," she
said.

http://uk.mobile.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUKKBN0FR22L20140722

its late i de come. Make i book space

Observing

...

Okay

I think Paypal can now see that not all Nigerians are fraudlent, that a Nigerian is fraud doesn't mean that the remaining 99.9% are also fraud. Its long overdue.

wooow, thats awesome... how do i open?? papa's bout to get some new pair of sneakers

Mtscheeeew...

What is the need..

When we can only spend and not receive money with it for now..

Thunder fire una yansh

Let them lift those restrictions jooh....
Thats the only thing holding me back from opening the account.

guente02: Let them lift those restrictions jooh....
Thats the only thing holding me back from opening the account.

yes oh ! we can't wait for that.

We were making online transactions before paypal o!

We want to receive our money too not just spending it Paypal Partners With Firstbank

its a nice concept sha but i'm still not happy with the idea of limiting we nigerians nd asking us to update our bank details always.....abeg howmany atm card una want make I add?

phayvorr: its a nice concept sha but i'm still not happy with the idea of limiting we nigerians nd asking us to update our bank details always.....abeg howmany atm card una want make I add?

I verified only 1 card and haven't had any issues with it since. Been shopping like no mans business. The report is slightly deceitful though, because I've been shopping on amazon with domiciliary accounts/dollar visa cards and more recently, normal naira mastercards since ~2009. The only (non)problem is shipping to naija of which I have a million relatives and friends in the US who can either ship it or bring it down.

Would make more sense if they allowed Nigerians receive money.

Hello,

I am doing a study of the adoption of mobile payment in Nigeria and would appreciate your opinion on the subject.
Please fill out my survey
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VSZDPY7

Am unable to open an account with paypal up till now, dont why

i jst hope we dont misuse it.

Samunosuke: I verified only 1 card and haven't had any issues with it since. Been shopping like no mans business. The report is slightly deceitful though, because I've been shopping on amazon with domiciliary accounts/dollar visa cards and more recently, normal naira mastercards since ~2009. The only (non)problem is shipping to naija of which I have a million relatives and friends in the US who can either ship it or bring it down.

afta verifying 2 of my atm cards, buyin tings on ebay is still showin me restriction errors dat I hav to update my card account either by registerin a new card or linkin it wit a bank account.....ive only been successful in buyin things twice on ebay nd since den, ive been havin dis same error messages.....although ive not tried buyin things on amazon sha