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PAYPAL BACK TO NIGERIA, FROM BLACKLIST TO FINTECH-LED RE-ENTRY
9 days ago
The re-entry comes amid Nigeria’s expanding gig economy, rising exports of digital services and increasing policy focus on non-oil foreign exchange inflows. Freelancers, software developers, creatives and small exporters have long cited PayPal restrictions as a structural disadvantage compared with peers in other emerging markets.
PayPal Returns to Nigeria
PayPal’s announcement in January 2026 of a new partnership with Nigerian fintech Paga marks its most significant return to Nigeria in more than two decades. It closes a long and uneven chapter in the country’s relationship with one of the world’s largest digital payments platforms.
The move, described by industry watchers as PayPal’s first full re-entry into Nigeria since the early 2000s. This allows Nigerians to receive international payments through linked Paga wallets, a capability that has remained largely unavailable to most users despite multiple earlier “launches.”
PayPal Nigeria Timeline
While it cannot be fully described as a 20-year exit, PayPal effectively shut Nigerians out of its ecosystem in 2004. It blacklisted the country amid fraud and compliance concerns, and Nigerian users were blocked from receiving funds with severe restrictions on account functionality. This cut freelancers, exporters and digital entrepreneurs off from a rapidly globalizing online economy.
A decade later, in 2014, PayPal announced an official launch in Nigeria through a partnership with First Bank. The rollout, however, fell short of expectations as Nigerian personal accounts were limited to send-only functionality. It allowed users to pay international merchants but not receive money or withdraw funds locally.
Between 2014 and 2018, some Nigerian businesses managed to receive payments through PayPal under special e-commerce arrangements and workarounds. Access, however, remained narrow, documentation-heavy and inconsistent. For most individuals, PayPal accounts continued to function only as outbound wallets.
In 2021, PayPal integrated with Flutterwave, enabling African businesses on Flutterwave’s platform to accept PayPal payments from international customers.
While the move was welcomed by startups and exporters, it was a business-to-business solution rather than a consumer breakthrough. Regular Nigerian PayPal personal accounts remained unable to receive funds directly or withdraw to local banks.
As recently as 2025, multiple user guides and fintech reports confirmed that Nigerian personal PayPal accounts were still send-only. They are useful for online shopping and international payments, but largely ineffective for freelancers, creators and small businesses seeking to earn from abroad.
PayPal Re-Entry through Paga
The January 2026 announcement of PayPal’s partnership with Paga represents a notable shift in strategy. Under the new arrangement, Nigerians can link PayPal to their Paga wallets to receive international payments, bypassing long-standing limitations tied to local bank withdrawals.
PayPal has also signalled that merchant-level acceptance and broader business use cases are expected to follow.
Analysts say the partnership reflects PayPal’s growing reliance on regulated local fintechs to navigate compliance, identity verification and settlement challenges in complex markets. For Nigeria—Africa’s largest digital economy, the move aligns with a broader trend of global payment firms opting for partnerships rather than standalone operations.
The Paga integration does not yet represent a fully native Nigerian PayPal wallet. This is therefore viewed as as the clearest signal yet that PayPal is reassessing Nigeria’s risk profile, and its commercial potential.
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