PayPal is a globally accepted means of payment anywhere in the world and we shall be looking at how to open a PayPal account in Nigeria. Many people know what a PayPal account is and have used it many times to make payment and receive payment. But for the purpose of the people that don’t have much knowledge of it, I will be describing what a PayPal account is, and later I will explain how you can open and verify it in Nigeria.
If you already know what PayPal is all about but just want to know who to open and verify it, scroll down to the subheadings describing the process below.
What is A PayPal Account?
A PayPal account is an online payment platform owned by PayPal Holding Inc. PayPal is one of the widely used online payment processors, supporting payment in almost all countries. Before 2014, Nigeria was among the countries in which the usage of PayPal isn’t available, but now it is available for usage, with some restrictions.
With a PayPal account, you can pay for products and services online, without the merchant seeing your local bank account detail. Besides PayPal is a comfortable way to pay on Amazon, Godaddy, Gearbest, Aliexpress, Ebay and other international e-commerce websites.
Now you know what PayPal is. Let’s go and open one.
How to Open PayPal Account in Nigeria
For the purpose of this post, I will be using my Android phone to open a verified PayPal account in Nigeria. The steps are the same for PC.
Follow the steps below to sign up for the PayPal account:
Go to PayPal website on www.paypal.com
On landing on the PayPal website, tap on Menu, located at the top left corner: Tapping Menu will expand the option.
On the displayed option, you will see the option called PERSONAL, with a V-sign beside it. Normally PayPal allows two type of accounts – Personal and Business. However the business account isn’t available in Nigeria.
Click on Sign Up below PERSONAL: This loads a Personal Account form page.
On the first form page, fill in your Email address, and create and confirm a password.
After filling your email address and password, tap on Continue: Tapping continue loads the second page of the form.
On the second form page, fill in all the personal information required. Make sure your Street Address 1 is the same as the address you used in opening the local bank account of the ATM card you will be linking with the PayPal account. You don’t have to feel Street Address 2.
Tap on the box below Mobile to accept User Agreement and Privacy Policy.
Tap on Agree and Continue.
By tapping on Agree and Continue, you have successfully registered a PayPal account in Nigeria. The next step is to verify the account.
How to Verify Your Nigeria PayPal Account
To verify the Nigeria PayPal Account you just registered, you have to first activate the account through a link sent to your email, and then you must link your Nigeria Master or Visa card. See the steps below:
Login to the email address you used in registering the PayPal account and find the email from PayPal.
Open the email and click Activate My Account: This will activate the account and give you a first-time login access to your PayPal account.
While you are still logged in, locate and tap on get verified.
Tap on Link a card.
Fill in your Master or Visa card information and tap on Save.
On tapping save, $1.95 will be deducted from the account of the card you are trying to link. The money will be refunded within hours. The deduction is to verify your ownership of the card. This charges also creates a unique 4-digit code which you will use in the confirmation of the card.
After receiving the 4-digit code from your bank, login to your PayPal account, tap confirm credit card, enter the code and tap continue. The code is the 4-digit number after PP* in the message from your bank.
That’s all, you now have a verified Nigeria PayPal account, the next step is funding and using it to pay for products and services online.
How to Fund Nigeria PayPal Account
Actually, at present, there is no way to fund Nigeria PayPal Account as a result of the restrictions still placed on Nigeria by PayPal. Nevertheless, you can use your Nigeria PayPal Account to make payment online. Instead of funding your PayPal account and then make payment using the fund in the account, payment with Nigeria PayPal account is deducted directly from the fund in the Master or Visa card you linked to your PayPal.
So you don’t fund the PayPal account. Money will be automatically deducted from your local bank account as you buy stuffs online through the PayPal account.
Aside the restriction on personally funding account, Nigerians can’t receive PayPal funds, too. I believe that as time goes on, all restrictions on Nigeria would be lifted and we will be able to enjoy the full features of this payment processor. In the meantime, keep shopping with your just created Nigeria PayPal account.
But for Nigerians with foreign PayPal account that they use in receiving money from abroad, you can sell or withdraw your PayPal funds to receive Naira with the help of PayPal exchangers.
One good PayPal exchange company you can use in Nigeria is MyTopExchange.com. They are a fast growing E-Currency exchanger based in Lagos, Nigeria.
To sell your PayPal funds to receive Naira, You would have to register on their website at https://www.mytopexchange.com
Login to your Mytopexchange account dashboard and place a PayPal sell order. After you send PayPal funds to their PayPal account, your transaction would be processed immediately and Naira payment would be sent to your bank account using Mytopexchange Dollar to Naira exchange rate.
MyTopExchange have a physical office in Lagos where you can carry out your transaction in person. You can find their address on their website contact page. You can contact MyTopExchange on phone number: 08144333114.
