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Gbeminiyi Ogunleye
1 month ago
Overview
PayPal reopens Nigeria to inbound payments through Paga partnership
PayPal has announced a major shift in its long-restricted engagement with Nigeria, unveiling a partnership with local fintech firm Paga that will, for the first time, allow Nigerians to receive payments on the global platform.
The development was disclosed by Paga’s founder and Chief Executive Officer, Tayo Oviosu, in a LinkedIn post confirming that PayPal is now live in Nigeria through Paga’s digital wallet infrastructure.
The collaboration marks a significant turning point in PayPal’s relationship with Africa’s largest economy, where users had long been limited to outbound, “send-only” transactions.
According to Oviosu, the partnership is the culmination of a process that began more than a decade ago.
He revealed that his first formal outreach to PayPal dates back to August 2013, when Nigeria’s fintech ecosystem was still nascent and global payment firms showed limited interest in African markets.
“At the time, Nigeria’s fintech ecosystem was still young. Paga was just a few years old. And the ‘Africa opportunity’ wasn’t yet part of most global boardroom conversations,” Oviosu said.
He explained that his proposal was built around a simple conviction: that Nigeria would evolve into one of the world’s most important economies, and that global payment platforms like PayPal would eventually need trusted local partners to unlock that growth.
In the 2013 proposal, Oviosu outlined how Paga could serve as a local on-ramp and off-ramp for PayPal, enabling seamless movement of funds between global and domestic systems.
“It would take more than a decade for that belief to fully materialize. Today, I’m proud to share that PayPal is now live in Nigeria through Paga,” he said, describing the announcement as the result of patience, regulatory engagement, and long-term investment in infrastructure rather than a single breakthrough moment.
PayPal’s presence in Nigeria has historically been defined by limited access. As far back as 2004, Nigerian accounts were placed on a “send-only” status, allowing users to make payments abroad but largely preventing them from receiving funds or withdrawing money into local bank accounts.
The company consistently cited fraud risks, regulatory complexity, and compliance concerns as reasons for restricting services in Nigeria and similar markets. While limited expansions in the mid-2010s enabled outbound payments through selected local banks, inbound payments for individuals and small businesses remained unavailable.
