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| Paypal in Nigeria opens a whole new world. |
Paypal is set to open up a whole new world of commerce online in Nigeria as it signed up “tens of thousands” of users In PayPal’s first week of operating in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy.The new Paypal customers in Nigeria, are now using the online platform to
purchase "goods from Britain, China and the U.S", Reuters reported.
Nigerian residents weren’t able to buy goods directly from foreign merchants before PayPal launched in the country often marred by financial scams, according to the article. EBay Inc.-owned PayPal said last month it would push into Nigera and nine other new countries to offer online payment alternatives to consumers via mobile phones or PCs.
Internet security and online fraud have halted e-commerce growth in Nigeria, where some 63 million people have active Internet data subscriptions but merely 1 percent of them make online transactions, according to Reuters. Nigerian lender First Bank, which PayPal partnered with ahead of its launch, said Web-based purchases are expected to hit $1 billion this year.
Malvina Goldfeld, PayPal’s head of business development for sub-Saharan Africa, told Reuters that challenges remain, such as supply chain issues, abysmal infrastructure and coaxing shoppers to trust websites with their banking information.
The San Jose-based company, which claims 148 million active accounts around the world, now operates in 203 countries.
It's a whole new world opening for International companies in "Naija" as well as local Nigerian businesses who can now use this new medium to conducts business with millions of online Naija paying customers