PayPal, foremost global payment service company, is still cautious of rolling out programmes locally in the country, after about nine months of entrance into Nigeria and nine other markets in Africa
PayPal, an American international digital wallet based e-commerce business worth US$7.9 billion, was first established in 1998 as Confinity, a company that developed security software for handheld devices founded by Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, Luke Nosek, and Ken Howery.
Today, it has transformed to allow payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet.
While launching its service that will enable Nigerians conduct overseas website payments, the Company admitted that, “as technology is breaking down barriers to global commerce, many people are wary of entering their credit or debit card details on the website of an unknown seller, operating in a distant country”.
Also, just last month, study conducted in Nigeria by Ipsos, a global market research company, on behalf of PayPal showed an expectation by Nigerian consumers to conduct more shopping online.
In that study, out of the approximately 50 million internet users in Nigeria, 65% of users already shop online and another 24% of users expect to do so in the future.
And Nigerian consumers who have heard of PayPal agree PayPal is a fast (85%), convenient (83%) and safe (73%) way to pay online, to the extent that 72% of online shoppers aware of PayPal agree it is the safest online payment method.
In spite this mouth-watering opportunity, confidence reposed on it and the increasing calls from many quarters for PayPal to allow Nigerians to be able to receive payments, Malvina Goldfeld, head, Business Development, sub-Saharan Africa at PayPal told ITWeb Africa on Friday, that “such may happen over time but for now they are satisfied with just allowing Nigerians to make overseas payments”.
Goldfeld also revealed that Nigeria is PayPal’s second largest market in Africa, after South Africa.
“We are very happy to see that PayPal has been widely welcomed by Nigerians since the launch of the service in the country last year,” Goldfeld said.
According to the PayPal rep, the company is meeting the needs of millions of Nigerians that desire to engage in ecommerce on foreign platforms.
She said: “There are millions of people in Nigeria who are eager to engage in online commerce and our goal is to help them make payments more easily and securely. Currently, we offer Nigerians the opportunity to register for free for a PayPal account to make payments on overseas websites.
“Over time we plan to expand our service offering in Nigeria to include services that will lead to better experiences in online and mobile payment methods in Nigeria.”
“Nigeria is a very interesting market and over time we may expand our presence, but for now we are satisfied to help Nigerians register for free for a PayPal account and make payments on overseas websites,” she said.
As at 2014, PayPal operates in 203 markets and allows its 152 million active, registered accounts to send, receive, and hold funds in 26 currencies worldwide; although Nigerians can only use the platform at the moment to conduct overseas e-commerce transactions, but might not be able to receive inbound electronic funds.