In this article, I will be discussing how you can open a PayPal account in Nigeria. PayPal is the world’s most accepted mode of online payment and universally used by millions of individuals and firms for various transaction purposes.
Through PayPal, you can send and receive payments to merchants and individuals for products and services in just about everywhere.
Online transactions can be carried out swiftly and safely with no particular disclosure of your local bank account details to any third party or transacting partner.
Not until 2014, Nigeria and some other countries were prohibited from having access to the services on their platform, making it difficult to transact on platforms that only accept PayPal as a payment method.
However, this ban has now been lifted but still comes with a number of restrictions. With this development, entrepreneurs can process payments to individuals or merchants but won’t be able to receive payment for rendered services.
We will walk you through the procedures to open and run a PayPal account in Nigeria without the need for IP address change, and your PayPal account verification can be done using your bank MasterCard or Visa card.
How to Open PayPal Account in Nigeria
- Launch your browser and then visit paypal.com
- Once on the site, click on the “Menu” to reveal other options.
- From the options shown, select “Personal” and tap the “Sign up” button
- Wait for it to bring up a form page for Personal Account.
- Fill the form with your Email and password and then click on “Continue” to proceed to the next form page.
- Provide every further detail required appropriately.
- Accept the User “Agreement and Privacy Policy” by ticking the box just around it.
- Finally, hit the “Agree and Continue” button to complete the registration process.
How to Verify PayPal Account in Nigeria
PayPal Account verification requires first-hand activation through the email address provided above:
- On a new tab on your browser, login to your email address you registered PayPal account with and locate the email from PayPal, then tap to open.
- Click on “Activate My Account”. This will redirect you to PayPal website and after that, you are now logged in to your account for the first time.
- On your account, look for “Get Verified” and click on it.
- Proceed to “Link a Card” and provide as appropriate your MasterCard or Visa card details such as the card number, the expiry date, and the card verification value commonly known as “CVV or CSC”. Hit “Save”. From here, you will receive a debit alert of $1.95 from the linked account. Although, it is only for card verification purpose and the amount deducted will be reversed under a couple of hours.
- Take note of a unique “4-digit” code that will be sent from your bank through SMS or Email.
- Login to your PayPal account and click on “confirm credit card”.
- Finally, enter the 4 digit code and hit “continue”.
Your PayPal account has now been linked to your debit (ATM) card which will be charged directly each time you process any online transaction.
How to Set Up a PayPal Account that Receives Payment
To do this, you need to have someone you really trust be it friend or relative in countries other than Nigeria and other restricted countries, and this person should not already have an account on PayPal.
- Provide your preferred email address and let the person open a fresh PayPal account using his/her real name and be willing to provide further personal identification documents as deemed necessary by PayPal.
- In addition to this, the person’s bank account in that country will also be required for account verification purposes.
- Get the username and password for the account from the person upon successful creation and access it from Nigeria. However, IP address variation can generate concerns from PayPal to demand some identity documents for security verification. This is why it is very crucial that the person should use his/her real name and address in that country.
Note that PayPal only allows just one account per individual and in case the person already has an account with them, it is best you just make use of that account. You can then ask for your fund to be withdrawn and sent through either MoneyGram or Western Union.