By Jeremiah Aminu
A raging wave of nationwide outrage has descended upon the shores of the Nigerian social media space regarding PayPal’s return into the Nigerian fintech terrain.
This is tied to the promotion of the corporation’s initiative, PayPal World, whose function is etched around aiding cross-border payments in Nigeria without the need of opening a traditional PayPal account for transactional purposes.
While this announcement appears as an answered prayer to years of clamours by some Nigerians, to many Nigerians, it is a reminder of years of lost opportunities, heartaches, economic segregation, and heavy financial losses.
Many Nigerians, most especially on X (formerly Twitter), have urged fellow Nigerian citizens to boycott the platform and treat them with utmost distrust and suspicion owing to their long history of financial segregation and restrictions which have denied Nigerians numerous international career-transforming opportunities.
One may, then, want to ask: “What is the background behind this vendetta between the global fintech titan, PayPal, and Nigerians?”
It all dates back to the early 2000s when the corporation imposed heavy restrictions upon several African countries, most especially Nigeria, mainly as a result of fraud-related allegations revolving around online scams and stolen credit cards. Thus, Nigerians were only able to send money but were unable to receive and withdraw funds into local bank accounts under these restrictions.
Consequently, these limitations dealt a devastating blow to many Nigerians who lost freelance gigs, remote jobs, and business opportunities due to the generality (and often non-negotiable status) of PayPal as a medium of international transaction and withdrawal.
Some, on the one hand, tried taking the back door by using VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) to open personal and business accounts, borrowing relatives’ PayPal wallets abroad, and paying huge fees to middlemen to facilitate transactions. On the other hand, PayPal’s popularity made it awfully difficult for Nigerians who tried to persuade foreign clients to use alternative fintech platforms. In the end, both strategic paths proved to be futile.
But little did PayPal know that its negligence towards the Nigerian fintech domain would trigger its rapid development. In this regard, Nigerians began to adopt the use of platforms such as Paystack, Flutterwave, Cleva, Raenest, Grey Finance and other intra-continental driven fintech corporations aimed at aiding international transactions in the absence of PayPal. This, in turn, engendered an insurmountable growth in the Nigerian and African fintech market, attracting international traction, investments, and partnerships.
Now, PayPal has returned like a prodigal relative with the aim of partnering with local fintech platforms within Nigeria to achieve its recent initiative, PayPal World.
But what about the years of neglect, the years of financial segregation, the years of heavy financial losses that Nigerians have experienced due to PayPal’s limitations and short-sightedness regarding the potential of the Nigerian fintech space? Do they think Nigerians will just welcome them with open arms, warm smiles, and gentle pats on the back?
Unsurprisingly, that has not been the case. Instead, their return has reawakened financial nightmares that Nigerians have long fought to forget. The avalanche of comments on X is emblematic of the existence of these lingering nightmares.
Ossy Vincent, for instance, commented that:
“PayPal will burn actually; they are one of the only global payment platforms that totally excluded Africans and Nigerians especially. And they literally gave the most stupid excuse for doing it. Now, they want to stroll into the African market like nothing happened”.
Iyo Obietonbara also wrote:
“If Nigerians have any self respect, they will kick out PayPal. PayPal has been operating in countries like India, Indonesia, Brazil, etc., but came up with an excuse for Nigeria at a time when young Nigerians needed their service. Whatever they accuse Nigerians of, these countries are 10X more guilty. PayPal only stopped their operations in Russia due to Western sanctions on Russia in 2022. Any Nigerian with an iota of self respect will boycott PayPal”.
In a similar vein, Roland Decker criticised the fintech platform, stating that:
“Every Nigerian should boycott @AskPayPal. For years, they’ve restricted us, treating an entire nation as untrustworthy scammers. No due process. No individual assessment. Just blanket exclusion. In our absence, Nigerian fintech rose and built world-class alternatives: faster, fairer, truly ours. Flutterwave @FlwSupport, @paystack, @OPay_NG, and more. Now PayPal wants a bigger slice of the market we built without them (while their shares keep tanking). Reject them. Stand united. Support the systems we created. Our innovation deserves our loyalty”.
In continuance, Vindicated Chidi commented:
“Dear PayPal, years ago, you shut your doors to Nigeria, branding an entire nation based on a narrative that never reflected reality. Despite clear data showing Nigeria isn’t among the world’s top sources of online fraud, you chose exclusion over engagement and ignored the innovation, talent, and economic potential right in front of you. Now you’re back. The question is why does PayPal need Nigeria now? What does PayPal now want from Nigeria?”
Now, a question lingers: “Will PayPal be able to regain the trust of Nigerians after a prolonged period of segregation and stigmatisation?” No one knows yet. But one fact is certain, If PayPal fails to implement honest, transparent, and restorative measures to address its past actions and mitigate the damage done, regaining the trust of Nigerians would be much more difficult than finding the proverbial needle in a giant haystack.
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