Setting up a working PayPal account for most online business owners is often time very hard. And if you are an online business owner or you are a person who does anything that has to do with sending and receiving money online, then you need to have a PayPal account. Creating one is somewhat very easy and this article will help you do that without any itch.
Want to open a PayPal account that sends and receives money in Nigeria? All you are required to do is to choose a foreign PayPal platform of your choice, select the type of account you want to open, enter a valid email address, describe your business type, fill in your personal information, confirm the email address and finally, link your credit card or debit card. Not to worry, all these will be keenly discussed in the article. Let’s get to it.
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In some of my previous articles, I have made mentioned how to make money online. But one problem most online business owners face is having an itch-free payment method between the buyer and the seller and without doubt, Nigeria is one of the most affected places where we have quite some people who do have problems creating a PayPal account with no restrictions.
It gets even worse when after you have sold your product to your customer, you are having problems getting paid for a product that has already been delivered.
Although some other platforms allow you to send and receive money from a seller to a buyer online, the truth is that most of these platforms have many restrictions and limitations and as such, make most online transactions to places like Nigeria very hard to do.
For anyone who already knows how to open a PayPal account in Nigeria, you can testify that getting paid for your services online is just a matter of a few days and the process goes without issues or limitations.
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According to a statista, PayPal served over 377 million users with a total transaction of about $936 billion in just 2020.
Despite the significant number of billion rated transactions made with PayPal, the achievement looks somewhat skewed when it comes to the percentage of transactions done successfully with PayPal in Nigeria with the PayPal personal or business account.
One of the major reasons for this is the regulatory policies of the Central Bank of Nigeria on money transfer services which have prevented FinTech companies from exploiting the Nigerian business market.
After this challenging problem has been identified, a lasting solution was brought about when FlutterWave collaborated with PayPal to help merchants in Nigeria and Africa at large do business and make transactions online (receiving payment for services) from any part of the world without any issue or limitation via PayPal.
With this agreement, sending and receiving money online with PayPal in Nigeria from any part of the world is no longer a challenge if and only if you follow the right process.
Setting up a working payable account in Nigeria can be done in three different ways. All these 3-methods of opening a PayPal account will be discussed in the article below.
Lets us briefly talk about what PayPal is exactly and how it works in Nigeria, How to send and receive money with PayPal in Nigeria? Specific places you can use PayPal in Nigeria and finally, How you can open and use Payal to send and receive money in Nigeria from any part of the world in 2022.
What is PayPal and How Does it Work in Nigeria?
This is what we have earlier talked about in some of our previous posts. It is simply an online payment platform that is used in over 200 countries of the world, It allows the easy and swift transfers of funds and is supported as an alternative to the traditional check and money order.
PayPal is a service provided by the American FinTech company called PayPal Holding Inc. It has its headquarters located in San Josse, California, United States.
For the sake of emphasis again, PayPal is a service needed/used by anybody that runs an online business or deals with international customers. It is an easy payment gateway that allows online payment directly into your local bank account.
Of course, we know that no business is complete if you can offer a service and at the end of selling your product, you are unable to receive your money.
This is what makes integrating a payment method like PayPal into your business advisable. According to Statista at the end of 2021, PayPal has over 392 active users all over the world, 29 million active PayPal merchant accounts (by Expanded Ramblings), over 1.6 million websites using PayPal as a payment method (by Similar Tech), PayPal processed $15.4 billion transactions in 2020 (by Business of App), PayPal generated $21.4 billion in 2020 (by Business of Apps).
All these statistics are just to show how many business owners have embraced PayPal as a reliable payment gateway for their business.
PayPal can as well be integrated into an e-commerce website so that buyers can simply pay for the goods ordered directly via PayPal and the money will directly be credited to your PayPal account. The process is just too easy and transparent if you have fulfilled the required criteria.
Even if you do not have an e-commerce website, you can still use PayPal as a payment method and all you will need is the email address you used to create your PayPal account. With this, the customer can simply log into his account and use your email address to send your fund to you.
While you are creating your PayPal account, you will be required to link your Debit or Credit Card, (Master Card, Visa, Verve), etc.
Kindly note that for those with a Naira Card, you might not be able to link your card with PayPal directly like the other cards. You need a Dollar card which is only possible with a domiciliary account.
After a successful payment into the domiciliary account, your wallet will be created and PayPal will send you an email to alert you. You can then withdraw the money by releasing funds to the ATM card that you linked to your PayPal account after which your bank will be credited in dollars and then you can finally make your withdrawal.
Making transaction with PayPal is so safe and secure as every transaction done is never shared with any third party other than between you and your bank. This is of course why most people choose PayPal as their preferred payment method over other payment gateways.
One of the good sides of using PayPal is that it helps to avoid losing customers due to fear of stealing credit card detail. For customers who might be scared of entering their card details on your website due to their uncertainty of your site security, Having PayPal as a payment option will help you retain more customers and gain more trust from international clients to purchase or order anything from your website without fear of anybody stealing their credit card details.
The payment system is designed to remove every form of barrier that online merchants do have while dealing with foreign customers or clients.
Talking about the cost of having a PayPal payment gateway, it is believed to be the cheapest, and most flexible among all the other payment methods available globally.
PayPal officially came to Nigeria in 2014 and was listed among the list of 47 international money transfer operators by the CBN. This was made known in a social tweet release made in March 2021, where PayPal was officially declared as one of the 47 official international money operators in the country.
However, this did not remove the limitations Nigerian have in receiving money via the PayPal account. Most PayPal account owners still cannot receive money in Nigeria due to limitations and PayPal restrictions.
The reason behind this is that, there is a regulatory transaction limit that has been placed on both inbound and outbound money transfers on Nigeria’s PayPal account and as such would need a foreign account to bypass this limitation and restrictions.
Restrictions on Nigeria PayPal Account
In Nigeria, any PayPal account, either a personal or a business account can do only one thing which is to send money. A normal Nigerian PayPal account cannot receive money from another country.
On trying to use a Nigerian PayPal account to receive money, you will get an error message which says that “the sender should visit the receiver’s website instead and make payment via the checkout page”
As a result of this limitation and PayPal restriction on Nigerian accounts, it is most times very hard for many businesses, especially small scale ones who are yet to have an e-commerce website to recover their ROI (Return Of Investment)
This invariably means that, if you fail to have an e-commerce site where a check-out page is available, you will not be able to use a PayPal account in Nigeria.
Generally, the way PayPal works here in Nigeria is separate from the way it works for other countries like the USA, UK, or even some other African countries like Lesotho. Their policy is different for different countries.
All of these are dependent on the policies of the government that checkmates the online money transfer operators in the country. These policies are different for different countries.
A few years ago, some people started seeing an escape route to bypass this limitation on the Nigerian PayPal account, and luckily enough, after good research, I have also found this solution.
When I discovered this bypass method, I had to close my previous PayPal account, to create a new account that has all these limitless features which have been placed on a normal Nigerian PayPal account.
With this type of account, you are about to learn how to open, you can generate and send invoices to your customers online.
Even though not many experts will never reveal this to everyone as many of them take this as a means of getting money by creating an account for people and charging them for it. But I will be sharing this knowledge with you at no extra cost. So please do take a second of your time to share this with some other persons who might need this too once you are done reading this post.
Why PayPal Account As A Nigerian?
PayPal offers a whole lot of transactional benefits which are absent in most other online payment gateways. These benefits are numerous and I am going to mention a few of them.
So if you already know how to open a Nigeria PayPal account then you can just take a chill pill and enjoy a read of these benefits which might even be unknown to you.
1. High level of Customer Trust
For those who run an e-commerce business where buyers are required to make direct payment for products purchased online, you can attest that a lot of risks are involved.
Not even with the regular stealing of cards from unsecured sites by hackers. The customer will be mindful of avoiding any transaction that would involve sharing his payment card online.
Finding a reliable solution to this is an amazing way of gaining your customer’s trust and In return, more sales.
With the integration of PayPal as your payment option, you tend to reduce the risk of putting your customer’s card details at the risk of hackers and then reduce all other fraudulent risks involved.
2. All transactions are online
PayPal is a secured, fast method of making payments online for goods bought directly online.
All that is needed of you is to credit your PayPal wallet and then, when the need arises for you to pay for anything online, so far as such platform has PayPal as their payment option, then all you will be required to do is just to choose to pay with PayPal and the money will directly be charged from your PayPal wallet balance. This method allows you to initiate payment on the merchants’ websites.
In summary, this helps you to reduce the risk of using your credit or debit card as a payment method on every website
3. Simplicity
PayPal supports almost all forms of debit and credit cards, unlike some other payment gateways. You can decide to add a credit card or debit card. Be it MasterCard, Verve, Visa, etc.
In addition, you even add very more than one card to your account with no limitation to the number of cards you can add, how cool is that?
To top it all, PayPal is available to both android phone users and desktop device users. This vast space of accessibility and flexibility gives it a whole lot of good user experience and simplicity.
4. Reversibility
One key part of PayPal over some other platforms is the reversible payment option. This can happen for several reasons. And during this time the PayPal payment will be put on hold, one of which is when there is a dispute between the seller and the buyer.
Thus, in some cases like this, you can request a refund from PayPal if you were unable to get the product you ordered and PayPal intervenes to confirm that your request was genuine.
If PayPal can justify that the reason for the reversal request is legit, the fund will be reversed back into the buyer account after 21 days (21 working days)
5. Easy Use-ability and integration
PayPal is very much easy to integrate into any website. And if you don’t even know how to do it, there are countless video tutorials online that can put you through how to integrate PayPal into your website.
With the integration of PayPal into your website, you can receive money sent to you from any part of the world.
How To Open A PayPal Account In Nigeria: Requirements
Opening a PayPal account here in Nigeria is free and no charge is required. Whether you want to open a personal account or a business account, both are free to set up.
All that is required of you are your details. Or in case you want to open it for someone else, you are required to have all the details of the person you want to open it for. This is to certify that you are the bonafide owner of the account you want to create.
To open a PayPal account, here is all the information you are required to have ready:
1. Means of Identification
You will be required to provide a valid means of identification. Some of the valid ones are the National Identity Card (ID Card), Driver’s License, and International Passport.
2. Correct Full Name
You are to ensure that the name you want to use for your Paypal account tallies with the name that your identification card bears. If there is a disparity in the names, then you might not be able to open your Paypal account successfully.
3. Valid Email Address
You will be required to provide a valid email address that has not been used to open a Paypal account before.
4. Phone Number
You will also be required to provide a functioning phone number. It is always advisable to use the phone number you used for your email. And if you have lost it, then you can try to retrieve it before you proceed to open your PayPal account.
Here is an article to guide you on how to retrieve a lost SIM Card.
5. Contact Address
This is just to be sure that you can be located. Paypal wants to know if you have a location or an office where you stay or work. You can provide your home address if you do not have an office. But if you have an office, it is best to input your office address.
6. Domiciliary Account
This is needed because of the CBN limitation on Naira accounts for making online transactions. The domiciliary account helps to generate a dollar ATM card.
7. A Valid Dollar ATM Card
This is what will be used to connect your Paypal account to your domiciliary account. This information is required to withdraw or deposit money in your local bank account.
With all these requirements in place, you are just about ready to create your first Nigeria Paypal account that can send and receive money from any part of the world without restriction.
You can visit the PayPal website via your mobile device or your desktop to get started on your account registration or visit here to sign up for a business account
Getting Your Nigerian PayPal Account Set Up
Like I said in the introductory part of this post, there are three ways to get started on creating a Nigerian Paypal account.
- Via FlutterWave
- Direct Website Integration
- By Creating a PayPal account.
How To Access PayPal Via FlutterWave
To use flutterWave to start receiving money on PayPal, all you have to do is:
- Visit FluterWave Website
- Sign up for a business account
- Navigate to your dashboard and enable your preferred payment option
- Select PayPal from the list of available options.
How To Integrate PayPal Directly To a Website
This is also a very easy way of enabling PayPal as a payment option. All you have to do is to follow the below step:
- Have a product you want to sell
- Find a preferred domain name that suits your product
- Choose a hosting provider and register your domain with them
- Integrate an e-commerce section into your website
- Integrate the PayPal option into your website
You might find this difficult to do if you are new to this. It is most advisable to hire an expert to do this for you. You can hire me anyways. Just that I might charge you based on your taste.
I will help you create an amazing website, integrate an e-commerce section, as well as a function checkout page for you at an affordable rate.
How To Directly Create A PayPal Account
Not all PayPal accounts can receive money and not everyone will prefer to go with the first two options above.
So, if you happen to be among those who want to go with the third option to create a Nigeria PayPal account that will beat the restrictions placed on the normal Nigeria PayPal account, then you need to follow the steps below:
1. Choose a Foreign Platform
For the PayPal account to work in Nigeria, then you must choose a foreign platform. The three most recommended countries for you are:
- Iceland PayPal
- South African PayPal
- Lesotho PayPal
Choosing any of these countries is very okay for you. To sign up for their PayPal account, follow the link that leads to the country’s respective signup page.
| Country | Website |
|---|---|
| Iceland | Visit here to open a Nigerian PayPal Account |
| South African PayPal | Visit Here to Open a Nigerian PaPal account |
| Lesotho PayPal | Visit here to open Nigerian PayPal Account. |
I will advise that you sign up for any of the above sites with a desktop device. You can now proceed to do any other operation via your mobile phone once you are done signing up.
Let’s take, for instance, if you want to sign-up for an Iceland PayPal account: Click Sign Up for Account as stated above.
Once you have landed on the sign-up page,
2. Select The Account Type
You have two options, either to sign up for a personal account or to sign up for a business account.
So you are to click on the Business Account
Of course, signing up for a business account will give you access to more amazing features than the normal personal account like sending invoices to request payment from clients.
After selecting the account type, you can then click on “continue“
3. Enter Your Valid Email address
You would be required to enter a valid email address that you would like to use for your business account on PayPal. Note that you can use a separate email that is different from your normal email address. Just ensure that you maintain the same phone number throughout the process.
Ensure that you have access to the email address, and in case you have lost the SIM card you used to register the email address, retrieve it.
Then click on “Continue”.
Next, you will be required to create a strong unique password for the account. Ensure to pick a password that is easy for you to remember and do not share it with any other person.
Then click on “Continue” to proceed to the next page
4. Describe Your Business
Here you are required to talk about what your business is all about in a few sentences. Make use of relevant keywords that has to do with the services you offer or the product you sell. And if you have a website, you can fill it in the required column.
The CC Statement name can be your First name (Required). You need to ensure that you correctly describe what your business is about.
You would be required to provide the legal business name which of course can be your brand name. This is what you will be identified with while making transactions via your PayPal account.
Also, if you have a CAC registered business name, then you make use of it instead.
You can use your home address if your business does not have an office address.
Once you are done filling in this information, click “Continue” to proceed.
5. Enter Your Personal Information
This is to show that you are a human being and not a bot/robot. This is otherwise called “Tell us more about yourself”
Here is where you will be required to personalize your account.
You will be required to fill in your date of birth and Nationality.
Next, you will have to choose your means of identification-The available options are the National Identity Card (ID Card), Your Driver’s License, and International Passport. Choose the one you have.
You can tick the two boxes to confirm that you want to use the same address of your business address as your home address and also your business phone number as your home phone number
After you are done with this, click on “Submit“
Congratulations! You have successfully created your PayPal Business account.
6. Confirm Your Email Address
This step is very crucial. Before you can begin any operation on your account, you have to confirm your email address.
This is what will be used for any transaction you make through PayPal, so it is vital to confirm it first.
Next look through the top left page and click on the “Summary“
This will bring out your wallet balance and other information about your account. Then click on “See details”
You will then be made to see all your account information you have filled in before, check through thoroughly to ensure that the details are correctly filled, then click on “Submit“
Next, go to your email and look for the PayPal confirmation Email, open the mail and then click on “Confirm Your Email”.
You will now be redirected back to the PayPal login page where your email address will be displayed by default, then enter your password and then click on “Login“
7. Link Your Debit / Credit Card
Lastly, you need to link your card to your account. This is the last step in opening your functioning business PayPal account.
All you have to do is to navigate to the main menu of the site and click on “Summary” as in the image shown above.
Scroll on to “Link and Confirm credit or debit card” and then follow the steps that follow.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are answers to the frequently asked question on how to open a PayPal account that sends and receives money in Nigeria.
Can I open a PayPal account to receive money in Nigeria?
Yes, PayPal is available in Nigeria, As a Nigerian, you can open a personal account to send money, make payments and even shop online. But Nigerians cannot receive money via a personal PayPal account. You might have to open a business account for you to receive money from other countries as a Nigerian.
Which bank does PayPal accept in Nigeria?
Most people prefer to use FirstBank. FirstBank over the years has become the first as well as the only PayPal partner in Nigeria. Another list of banks includes Diamond Bank, Access Bank, GT Bank, WEMA Bank, FCM Bank, and UBA Bank.
Video Guide on How to Open a Working Paypal Account that Can Send and Receive Money in Nigeria
Conclusion
Getting customers are somewhat easy, but getting paid is where the problem arises. With a PayPal account rightly set up, you can receive from any part of the world as a Nigerian without any limitation to your account.
I hope this article helps you with how you can create a working Nigerian PayPal account that can send and receive money. Thank you for reading up.
