For millions of freelancers in Nigeria, Christmas is here – they can now receive payment from overseas via Paypal. Flutterwave announced this in their product update today, 16 March 2021. Paypal has over 377 million users and last year alone, Paypal enabled payments of nearly one trillion dollars through their site.
But Africa is largely shut off from their platform with only 12 African nations including South Africa and Kenya allowed to send and receive funds. For more than forty other African countries, Nigeria being in the head, you can only use Paypal to make payments via your credit card.
With his announcement, Paypal has opened its door to Nigeria’s 500-billion dollar economy and a remittance sector that tops 25 billion dollars per year. While remittances are sent through many channels such as Western Union and Ria, Freelancers have a smaller window to receive funds. They have had to depend on platforms such as volatile Payoneer and agents who live abroad to cash out from Paypal and send them the shortchanged naira equivalent.
Flutterwave and Paystack were formed to help freelancers receive payment but the fact that you have to send a link to your client discourages many who fear you are trying to hack their system, you’re from Nigeria remember? Even when they accept to pay you via the link, their bank may flag it as dubious.
See the Categorization for payment platforms by CBN
“Do you have Paypal?” the client would then ask. “No.” “What of Cashapp?” Another no. Sigh. The client may go the extra mile to pay you this one but would they return? They have to be super patient or you guys have to have a super connection or you have to offer super services for them to return knowing that pay time can be a battle.
They would most likely use someone from Croatia.
The news of Paypal open to Nigerians is, thus, big news. A big deal. It was so huge that the Flutterwave blog crashed so many times on Tuesday.
How to enable Paypal on Flutterwave to receive funds
We can say this better than they, so here’s how to enable Paypal from the horse’s mouth:
“First, make sure you’re a registered business on Flutterwave. If you aren’t, click here to register right now. Follow the prompts to complete your registration.
“Next, go into your dashboard, and follow these instructions on how to enable a payment method. Select PayPal from the list and that’s all.
“PayPal will then be displayed as an option on your checkout and your customers can checkout using that option.”
Flutterwave also took time to explain how you can pay someone using Paypal on Flutterwave.
How to pay Paypal users on Fluterwave
You are more likely a receiver but there is no harm in letting you know how to fund someone’s Paypal via Flutterwave. Flutterwave explains thus:
“As a PayPal user, it’s pretty much a familiar flow. On a Flutterwave merchant’s checkout page, look out for the ‘Pay with PayPal’ option.
“Click the ‘Pay with PayPal’ button, and follow the prompt as it redirects you to your PayPal account to complete your payment as usual.
“That’s it. After the payment, you’re automatically redirected to the merchant’s checkout page as payment is confirmed on the modal.”
Recall that we reported, last week, that Flutterwave is now worth 1 billion dollars having just received fresh funding from investors up to the tune of 170 million dollars.
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