For many years Entrepreneurs and freelancers in Africa have been unable to process payments abroad for years due to a lack of internationally acceptable payment solutions. And for some reason, this has led to lost opportunities and potential international transactions for these businesses.

If you’re unfamiliar with PayPal, it’s an electronic payment system that allows you to send (and receive) money online into a virtual account called a “PayPal account.” In other words, a PayPal account works like an electronic wallet that enables a variety of financial transactions to be conducted online. A PayPal account is usually opened with an email address, which is then used to receive or send funds online.

During this period, being able to receive payment via PayPal had also been a major concern for African-based merchants and freelancers. Amongst these African countries that couldn’t receive payments with PayPal was Nigerian.

Although entrepreneurs from these countries were allowed to open a PayPal account to make payments. In most cases, that’s all they could do. They were not permitted to receive payment using PayPal.

Why was Nigeria Blocked from Receiving Payment with PayPal?

“Why was Nigeria blocked from receiving payment with PayPal?” This has been a question on most people’s minds.

PayPal The world’s frontline payment processor is currently available in over 190 countries, and over 40 African countries including Eritrea, South Africa, Djibouti, Gambia, Togo, Mauritius, Mali, Chad, and Tanzania, among others.

But Nigeria is conspicuously absent from the list and it hardly makes sense considering that Nigeria has the second-largest economy in Africa so Nigeria should definitely be a focal point of the company’s activities.

It is understandable that PayPal has its fears about Nigeria considering the negative reputation the country has garnered for itself as home to internet fraudsters. 

But PayPal claimed that due to the complexities of global finance (expansion), certain countries couldn’t receive money on their platforms.

But as stated earlier, analysis believes it could be one of these three reasons;

 – Poor Banking Systems

 – Government policies that try to control foreign exchange

 – Internet Fraud

Is PayPal Now Available in Nigeria?

On March 16, 2021, Flutterwave announced a new collaboration with global payment leader PayPal to enable PayPal customers globally to pay African merchants Nigeria included in the continent through Flutterwave’s platform.

The intent of this collaboration is to support freelancers and SMEs to overcome the challenges of connecting with more than 337 million PayPal account holders globally meaning as a freelancer or entrepreneur in Nigeria once you register with Flutterwave you will be given the choice of selecting PayPal as one of your payment options.

Flutterwave is an African-based financial technology company that provides a payment platform for global merchants and payment service providers around the globe.

So beyond just making payments, you can now receive payment from PayPal users around the world. 

Steps to receive PayPal payments using Flutterwave

It is very embarrassing and frankly can be frustrating when you as a Nigerian entrepreneur or freelancer have to beg your friends abroad to help receive or send payments, take a huge cut and then forward the remnants of the payment to you in Nigeria in other ways. 

However, this collaboration between Flutterwave and PayPal lifts off the burden of hard payment issues a lot of freelancers and entrepreneurs are facing in Nigeria and other African countries.

Here are the steps you need to take to get started.

#1 Open an account on Flutterwave

This is the first and most important step you need to take to receive payment on PayPal via Flutterwave. Because without Flutterwave no payment.

Go to Flutterwave and click on create an account. Fill in all the necessary columns and click on get started. Once you have done all this you will need to verify your email.

Select the kind of account you’ll prefer; individual (suitable for freelancers and unregistered businesses), NGO, or corporate business owners.

For Freelancers, you’ll be required to provide some basic info like Business name, Address, Bank Verification Number (BVN), Account Number, Means of Identification, etc. before you can proceed with the registration.

If you are registering for a business account; you’ll have to provide your Tax Identity number, Memorandum, and Articles of Association, Corporate Account Detail, etc.

Once you finish filling the form, you will be automatically redirected to the homepage. As soon as you’re here, you’ll receive a welcome message to Flutterwave, indicating that your account is all set.

Add your Bank Details; to receive payment from your Flutterwave account after seeing the welcome message you’ll have to add your local banking details where your money will be sent in from Flutterwave.

#2 Connect your PayPal to Flutterwave

Now for this step, all you have to do is go to your dashboard, click on ‘Account settings’ and enable PayPal as the method of payment that you want.

Read this guide on how to open a PayPal account in Nigeria

As soon as all this is set, you can add that payment option to your website or generate links and send to your clients to make payment with PayPal.

#3 Add Flutterwave to your Website

There are different options available you can choose from when it comes to adding Flutterwave to your website for seamless processing of your payment but we will be focusing on the method suitable for receiving payment with PayPal. 

Payment Links

To use Flutterwave to process your payment, after registering you can generate a payment link that you will send out to your clients to make a direct payment with PayPal or you add the link to your website.

What the link does is direct your clients to a customized page created for that particular payment. As soon as the payment button is clicked a payment modal will show up for the client to make payment using the available channel.

That’s about all you need to do to use the PayPal Payment gateway via Flutterwave. Easy right!

Is it free to use PayPal via Flutterwave?

For each transaction you make via PayPal, Flutterwave charges a flat rate of 4.4% of the entire transaction value including an additional 0.30USD per transaction.

How long will the payment take?

Based on Flutterwave’s current transaction cycle, the processing time depends on the location of the transaction source either local or international.

Once the payment has been made it will be subsequently moved into our available balance on Flutterwave or paid directly into your bank account within 5 days from when the payment was made.

5 Easy Ways to Make Money with PayPal in Nigeria

It is pretty easy to make money online. There are plenty of legitimate ways you can make money online with PayPal as long as you are prepared to take a moment of your time to get that cash.

Let’s dive right into some of the easy ways for you to make money

1. Take Paid Surveys

One of the simplest and most popular ways to earn money online with PayPal in your spare time is by taking paid surveys.

If you like to share your opinions with others, there are established companies like Nike and Apple that spend billions of dollars every year on research to understand what their consumers like or dislike about their products so they can improve and create better products for them. 

This is where you come in, you simply give your opinion and feedback and you get paid for it. There are several paid survey platforms like Swagbucks and Survey Junkie that allow you to take short surveys and you will be rewarded with points that can be redeemed as PayPal money.

2. Make Money as a Freelancer

People had this misconception about freelance jobs that they are underpaid and it’s for workers who can’t find steady jobs.

But today freelancers are high in demand in today’s job market as employers compete for skilled labor. 

To remain competitive businesses now hire freelancers to help build a flexible workforce. 

There are several legit online jobs that pay through PayPal. Some popular freelance work in the marketplace include ; 

• Graphic Design – This is all about creating and editing visual pieces with software.
• Writing and editing – writing articles for websites and marketing materials. You can even make money writing resumes and cover letters for job seekers. 
• Transcribing – Converting audio files e.g. podcasts to written form.

If you want to give freelancing a shot you can try with online platforms like Fiverr and Upwork.

3. Monetize Your Photography Skills Online

Taking amazing pictures is no easy task but if photography is your forte and you have a smartphone with a good camera then you are good to go.

You can make money with this skill and sell your photos online to make extra cash. You can sell your photos using apps or on photography websites. Examples of such apps include the Foap app. 

Foap app; you can take pictures and videos on your phone and upload them to your online Foap portfolio. Whenever an agent, brand, or blogger buys a photo from you, Foap shares 50% of the earnings with you.

Foap pays its photographers using PayPal so all you have to do is withdraw your earnings from your Foap account and transfer the money into your PayPal account.

4.  Become a Proofreader

This is another easy way you can earn money online using PayPal. With more businesses operating in the online space, they need to hire proofreaders to help review and edit their content before it gets published to their customers and readers.

The benefits of working as a proofreader include having the flexibility to work from home and structure your working time however you prefer as long as the project gets finished on time.

This is a great way to earn extra money on the side after work and if you decide or need to stay at home for one reason but still want to bring home some income.

If you don’t have any experience in this area, you can expect to earn $15.39 per hour which’s about #6 000 as an entry-level proofreader. As time goes on with training and more experience, you can expect to earn $43,669 annually (as per PayScale).

Beginners, as well as experienced proofreaders, can find many proofreading jobs and freelance work online at Upwork, Fiverr, and Freelancer.

 5. Become an Affiliate Marketer

If you have a website or a blog you have the perfect platform to make money from affiliate marketing.

You will earn a commission each time a visitor completes a purchase right after they click on the referral link on your site for products that you recommend.

For instance, you can write a post about your favorite laptop and include an affiliate link for that laptop. If readers buy that laptop, you earn a few dollars from every sale.

Your commission can be paid through PayPal. Whether you are just getting started with affiliate marketing or already have some experience, you might consider taking courses that can help you improve and learn more about how to make more money.

Conclusion

Many Analysts see the collaboration between PayPal and Flutterwave as a major stepping stone for African businesses majorly in Nigeria.

In addition, new opportunities have opened up to Nigerians as they can now fully utilize the many ways of earning money using PayPal as the method of payment. Whether you take surveys, Freelance, or become an affiliate you can get paid quickly and securely with PayPal.