Paypal expands to more African countries
Paypal has expanded even further in more countries in Africa, and other parts of the world. I have highlighted the African countries below:
The new markets that can now use PayPal to send money online include: Albania, Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Azerbaijan Republic, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Chad, Colombia, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Cook Islands, Djibouti, Dominica, El Salvador, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Faroe Islands, Gabon Republic, Gambia, Greenland, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Honduras, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Federated States of Micronesia, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Nauru, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Niue, Norfolk Island, Oman, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Romania, Rwanda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Swaziland, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vanuatu, Vatican City, Yemen and Zambia.
Good as it sounds, it is important to note that users in all the African countries covered by Paypal, can only send, but cannot receive money. They cannot receive payments online even if they are online merchants. This is far better than not being included at all as users in the countries can at least pay for online services or send money to other Paypal users via the Internet.
Nigeria, Egypt and Ghana are prominently missing. This might not be unconnected to the fact that these countries are consider high-risk due to the high level of credit card fraud originating from these countries. Nigeria is especially unpopular on ebay, (world’s number 1 auction website) for fraud. Also, there is no bank issueing credit/debit cards in Ghana. The debit cards issued by a few banks are basically ATM cards and cannot be spent online. This might have contributed to Ghana not being listed.
May 12th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
PayPal Expands In Africa
Expanding operations into more African nations means more e-commerce for local users. Since e-gold may be slowing down operations, the additional access to PayPal may be very helpful to many people in these countries.
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May 13th, 2007 at 8:19 am
[...] Oluniyi Ajao blogs about PayPal expanding into more African countries: “Good as it sounds, it is important to note that users in all the African countries covered by Paypal, can only send, but cannot receive money. They cannot receive payments online even if they are online merchants. This is far better than not being included at all as users in the countries can at least pay for online services or send money to other Paypal users via the Internet. Nigeria, Egypt and Ghana are prominently missing. This might not be unconnected to the fact that these countries are consider high-risk due to the high level of credit card fraud originating from these countries.” Share This [...]
May 13th, 2007 at 9:20 am
Until Africans can receive money, paypal is a no go
May 13th, 2007 at 7:40 pm
[...] Seems like Paypal is one of those “leapfrogging” technologies that could help entire regions skip the process of developing a banking infrastructure, which apparently takes about 200 years of war (judging from how the West has done it). Good as it sounds, it is important to note that users in all the African countries covered by Paypal, can only send, but cannot receive money. They cannot receive payments online even if they are online merchants. -Oluniyi David Ajao [...]
May 14th, 2007 at 11:12 am
South Africans have been able to pay with Paypal for years, but there’s been no progress in being able to accept money. If there’s no sign of the most sophisticated banking environment in Africa being fully integrated, what hope for other African countries?
Paypal may be useful, but it’s still a giant vacuum cleaner sucking money to Western banks, with nothing coming back this way.
May 14th, 2007 at 1:43 pm
Each country has its own financial regulation and many people have given different reasons about why South Africans cannot receive money via Paypal. Some think it has to do with tax issues.
I still insist though, that being able to send money (only) via paypal is better than not being able to open a paypal account at all.
Jul 12th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
I have registered for paypal but cant add my visa credit card. When I call the issuing bank in Kenya their records show there has not been a denied request.
The paypal customer service is not helpful at all
What should I do?
Jul 12th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
What error do you get when you try to add your Visa credit card?
Sep 15th, 2007 at 8:41 pm
I believe Ghana has fairly strict laws about moving money out of the country, which is why Europeans working there will occasionally be happy to give a European visitor Cedis in return for a transfer into their European bank account.
I also seem to remember a friend from Sierra Leone once wanted to send money home from Ghana via Western Union but wasn’t allowed to.
Of course there are ways/exceptions to the rule, but they involve a good amount of paperwork.
That would explain why Ghana is not on PayPal’s list. If PayPal is not going to offer Africans a means to receive money and if PayPal can’t allow anybody to readily send money out of the country there’d be little use to the whole thing.
Sep 16th, 2007 at 8:49 am
Thomas, the concept you are attempting to explain is well-known to me, and is called “Capital Flight” in economic terms.
I am aware that this may be a major factor deterring Paypal, but one cannot discount the role of fraud. Nigeria, Egypt and Ghana are both widely marked as “high-risk” because of the rather high number of fraudulent transactions originating from those countries.
Sep 20th, 2007 at 7:19 pm
I bidded for a Calvin Klein for men on Ebay on on 15th or 16th of September 2007 when I was on Vacation in England. After winning I successfully registered my Mastercard issued by Intercontinental Bank PLC, a Nigerian Bank. The processes took me to http://www.paypal.co.uk but was declined registration by the Paypal. I used my card unhindered in UK Shop and ATMs. Now Ebay has since been sending reminder to my email. Please rather than denying Nigerians with good intention from partaking in e-commerce bussinesses some measures should be put inplace to enable issuing banks in Nigeria authenticate users’ elegibility>
Sep 30th, 2007 at 10:56 pm
I wasn’t aware of the term capital flight, but surely if it is as cumbersome to get permission to send money out of Ghana via a bank as suggested and it’s not possible at all by Western Union, then PayPal simply cannot allow people to do so as they are effectively prevented to do so by law.
Why they don’t allow it for any African country is another matter, though.
PS: Thanks for responding. Would be great, though, if you could generally email it as well, I’ve only come across your response by chance!
Nov 1st, 2007 at 12:45 pm
Not the first Ian, another one!
Personally I am not going to utilise PayPal on a one way operation. Either they can treat us in Africa as equals or they can take a hike. I’d rather engage in barter, or find someone reputable who accepts payment by normal credit card transactions - not at all difficult.
Still, this is not an uncommon attitude to Africa from the northern hemisphere, but at the same time I have often wondered if this is not due to some blocking by the local banks who see their heavy fees for forex transactions under threat.
Ian
Dec 21st, 2007 at 2:17 pm
Well, to those people who are lamenting about not being able to use paypal should try and find a smart way to use PayPal. Maybe they can start by opening up an offshore bank account which they can use to receive money and then transfer the funds into their local accounts. for instance, to operate a PayPal account in UK you need a bank account. For those of us who have Barclays in their countries this is even easier since they just need to be transferring money direct from Barclays UK, the offshore account. Go to this website and open an offshore account. http://www.barclays.com/internationalbanking/ . Remember, the Know Your Customer Rules in this case are stricter than usual. The charges may also be prohibitive, at around 10 pounds per month.
Perhaps thats the best way us Africans can use PayPal, or we can wait until that time PayPal decide its worthwhile to expand into Africa. I choose the former.
Dec 22nd, 2007 at 11:30 am
I beg to differ with you James.
I have used Paypal for some time now and know perfectly well how difficult it can be to use Paypal from outside a country where Paypal’s services are not available. If you use your Paypal account from Nigeria and they have any reason to suspect fraud, they would ‘freeze’ the account and any funds in it until you are able to produce valid documentation regarding all the name, credit card information, bank accounts address etc that you used in opening the paypal account. So readers beware.
Dec 28th, 2007 at 11:43 am
David,
Its possible that you will be caught if you use your traditional email address, especially one that you had specified on the drop-down list of countries an African country as your country of origin.
The trick is you open a new email account and specify that your country is, for instance Britain and make sure you have an account with a British Bank. I recommend Barclays, HSBC and Lyoids TSB. Moral questions will of course arise (lying that you are British) but I believe in this case it is justifiable, PayPal has given us little choice. I believe that way you will be in a position to use PayPal unfettered. Its a tried and tested method really.
Jan 29th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
I have some prospective customers from Algeria who want to buy from me, but they keep saying that PayPal doesn’t work for them despite the fact that their country is listed as one of PayPal’s accepted countries. Does anyone know what the problem is?
Feb 24th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
hallo people,
i just came across this blog and i think its great.james, i think your idea is great for the serious people.i would advice eric to use the virtual visa credit card for one time transactions or for site membership.it has worked perfectly for me.paypal is still miles away from totally embracing africa with all the fraud history trailing us.however, the future is very bright and better opportunities will open up.lets keep up the great African spirit with us…………..
Mar 30th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
why is nigeria egypt and ghana not accessable to pay pal
Apr 3rd, 2008 at 10:01 am
I have attempted to answer that question here: Why Paypal features in Africa are limited
Apr 14th, 2008 at 11:35 am
People for me paypal is scam. They are in fact one of the biggest scam operations in the world. I have had personal experience with them and i also advise you stay away from them even if you are not african. YES. conduct your research and see that alot of companies around the world would not accept paypal if the money is reasonable. that is because they don’t want to risk losing it.
I think we as africans have to start working things out for our selves. why cant we have our own paypal? maybe call it sanowo.com.ng/paymoney.com.ng/paypaddy.co.ng or something. I understand it’s challenging but we can do it and 4get paypal completely. they need us more than we need them though, so make paypal go sit down.
one day nigger go get their own kindda paypal and we can’t be shut out from the legit internet money making opportunities.
Apr 14th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
well said, but the problem is, when u get paypal Nigeria or a Nigerian alternative, who will accept it, how will it be welcomed by the rest of the world being that most merchants are non Nigerians and also Nigeria reputation is very poor!
I think e-currencies like e-gold and Liberty Reserve are other alternatives.
Jul 20th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
I think paypal sucks this bad. Hating on ‘em African countries. Let paypal go suck itself.