Well, yesterday was a very significant day for me. I am not sure exactly when it happened, but receiving money in Kenya through PayPal is now possible! Kenya is officially on of the PayPal supported countries.
Yesterday there was a heated discussion on the Skunkworks Kenya mailing list on whether one can use PayPal in Kenya. During this discussion, one of the skunks happened to visit the PayPal site and lo and behold Kenya was on the list of supported sites. It was not long before the skunks quickly tested and confirmed that receiving money in Kenya via PayPal is now actually possible!
Why is this important? Almost everybody knows about PayPal and they are the most popular company to process payments on the Internet. Many people will trust paying through PayPal because that’s what they normally use. In fact, in countries like the USA, if you do not offer an option for buyers on your e-commerce site to pay via PayPal, buyers will think twice before buying from you. Just using PayPal inspires trust amongst your potential customers.
Now that PayPal supports Kenya, I expect that e-commerce in Kenya shall grow even faster.
Unfortunately, you can receive money into your PayPal account in Kenya but you cannot yet withdraw it to a local bank account – you have to withdraw it to a US bank account. This is definitely going to be a hindrance for many, but there are rumours that PayPal is working with Equity and we shall soon be able to withdraw to an equity bank account in Kenya. Is this great, or what??
So, this is all great but how do you actually use PayPal to do e-commerce? Well, PayPal offers two main ways of getting paid:
- Anyone can send money to the email address that you used to sign up for PayPal and you will receive it int your account.
- You can integrate PayPal into your own website to power payment processing for your online shop. DukaPress is probably the easiest way to do this as it supports PayPal straight out of the box.
Update: PayMPESA Helps Withdraw Your PayPal Funds to MPESA
Update: You can also now withdraw from PayPal through Babawatoto or LibertyReserve.
I recently received cash in Kenya via Mukuru.com I know you can send funds directly into the MPESA system. I think you can pay Mukuru with PayPal too – which means it’s a quick link between PayPal and MPESA (cash-out) in Kenya. Hope this helps.
For some reason the site doesn’t open
Hi Eli kwesu I have tried PayPal to western union http://paycashexchange.info and its working well.
paycashexchange.info posted here by Mr. Patrick Kamau is a scam.. It’s a Kenyan “Cash forwarding” scam.. the lying bastards have no intention of ever doing what they claim.. any reference to these thieves was put on the Internet by Patrick Kamau himself.. All in June and July all by the same scumbag bastard thief.. human garbage is what this piece of trash is.. and if there was any way I could get my hands on him, I’d break his scrawny neck and feed him to the dogs.. Hope you read this you scumbag garbage.. hope even more that you get arrested and I can get close enough to get my hands on you..
Truly this Patrick Kamau Conned me, I met him in person, about receiving money from paypal, who ever will have him in police station first lemi know. He is a conman and his phone is always off. May be he has changed his number. Thou he teached me some tricks which I modified, and I’ve used paypal to receive cash in Kenya as late as last week (1st sep 2011), Please not this is not 100% legal but anyway you get your cash, far cheaper and faster than sending to some1 in US then he send it to kenya. I’m worried this wont last for long, But I trust God when one door closes another one opens.
Boss, pole
Best thing since sliced bread
Hehe, well put!
Best news since Sliced bread !
Now that is what I call the beginning of ecommerce in Kenya. I’m sure glad I follow your blogs as this would have passed me by.
I find the discussion interesting and the excitement a little misplaced. Receiving money through PayPal in Kenya has been the norm for quite some time now. The problem has been how to withdraw the money from your paypal account (locally). Am not being sarcastic but i think one of our problems is that we approach most online services in the wrong way. We log in, create an account and log out, we dont read the specifics, we dont take time to find out all that we need to know, hence the misconception we have all been having about paypal in kenya.
Dear James, I respect your opinions.
However, I have been “working online” a LONG time. To say that “receiving money through PayPal in Kenya has been the norm” is quite inaccurate at best. Perhaps by “quite some time” you mean the last week or so? Before then it was impossible!
See, my main problem with working with PayPal has ALWAYS been the ability to merely receive money in an account registered and verified using a Kenyan Bank account and Address. If it was only withdrawing locally it would not have been a problem to me personally because I can withdraw elsewhere. Therefore, I am convinced that you have not done enough research yourself on what you say. Before very recently, it was impossible to have merely a PayPal balance if your PayPal account was registered in Kenya and verified using a Kenyan bank account and Kenyan address. my life revolves around working online so I know what I am saying. And I am not the only one who is saying this. If you would just do some research you would know that until early this year, receiving via PayPal was impossible not only in Kenya, but the whole of Africa.
Our “main problem” as you put it is quite true. Our other problem is not doing enough research before making assertions.
Here are some links you can look at if you’re inclined to do so:
http://www.davidajao.com/blog/2007/09/29/why-paypal-features-in-africa-are-limited/
http://imod.co.za/2008/02/13/i-called-paypalcom-today-from-south-africa-and-asked-wasssup/
http://www.siku-moja.blogspot.com/2009/06/alertpay-africas-e-commerce-alternative.html
I agree with you kelvin, the guy above is not so familiar with online stuff(James I dont mean to make you feel wierd). it’s such great news though that only Kenya, i repeat Kenya and South Africa are the only countries in Africa that support receiving cash in the whole of africa and that tells alot of potential that Kenya has. It’s now upon us young developers to offer more solutions to the world like dukapress and ushahidi among others.
just to add on Kevin’s comment on James post. I have been working with GAF and recently tried receiving money from clickbank but the Paypal issue was the problem. I could not receive revenues from clients in GAF. So James with due respect. Stop the flimsy arguments and save it for the gurus.
In Kenya, e-commerce is being embraced; however, PayPal has been an obstacle for Kenyan online entrepreneurs. The fact being PayPal is the most trusted means of conducting transactions online, it is a nightmare for Kenyan online entrepreneurs since they’re are unable to withdraw cash payments through PayPal from their bank accounts. I am pleased to hear that Equity bank is working with PayPal to make its operations effective.
This is good news! At least now I can transfer my money from Scriptlance and use that money to buy stuff on the net. Waiting for withdrawal facilities though.
Hi guys its so amazing to hear that paypal has finally hit our country.It has been a long process to get my epayments through other means of money tranfers.Its just wow to me.How about you who has online job?
I don’t see what the excitement is. PayPal will only “work” in Kenya when they allow withdrawals from a Kenyan bank account. Until then, it doesn’t deserve a mention
From personal experience, some shoppers from the “West” will not buy from your shop, or will be inclined not to do so if you do not have a pay by PayPal option. Good as they are, akina AlertPay na Moneybookers don’t inspire confidence from most people.
I agree with you on one hand, but on the other hand, people like me (there must be others) now have access to a greatly wider ‘market’. Receiving payments is a problem but is it not better to have money sitting in your PayPal account rather than in a potential customer’s pocket?
For those smart enough its possible to have a virtual US bank account which functions like a normal bank account, and you can use this to withdraw payments from Paypal. There are some organizations that provide this account. I use Payoneer and they gave me an account with the First Bank of Delaware, and I didnt even have to leave my office in the CBD. You can google if there are other companies that do this.
These are good news promulgatedkabisa. I would like to get this virtual US bank account. From the Payoneer website, is it the cards being referred to?
Issuing prepaid debit cards is the main activity for Payoneer, and these cards are used to withdraw money from freelancing/affiliate websites such as scriptlance and vworker.com. One of the conditions for getting a card is that you must join any of these sites and register a profile. You cant apply for a card directly from Payoneer, you must go through any of these websites. Once you get the card, you might request for the account using this mail (feedback@payoneer.com). Upon satisfying a few other additional conditions, you may be provided with an account.
Thanks alot for the info.I would be happy if you can give me your address. Mine is jchomba10@gmail.com
i mentioned earlier that payoneer is indeed the easiest way to receive and transact online via theri master cards which is free.I have been using payoneer master card without an issue in the last 6 months>As we wait to confirm that paypal is indeed working here in kenya you choose the payoneer option
The only confirmation one needs is to go to http://www.paypal.com/worldwide and see that Kenya is in the list of send/receive countries. The problem with payoneer is that it works only for freelancers. PayPal is very important if you need a merchant account and you sell stuff online. For anyone who lives in Kenya and has a Payoneer card, you can use that card to withdraw money from your PayPal account (Via a US virtual bank account) since local withdrawals are still unsupported.
My friend, would you be able to write something up on Payoneer for publication on this website? I believe more in-depth knowledge of what Payoneer offers would be of benefit to other readers of this site.
Yeah I would love to do a write up but maybe on the weekend. But let me summarize it here. Kenyans can now receive money in their PayPal accounts. One needs to withdraw that money for it to be useful. Now, PayPal doesn’t have any arrangement with a local bank which can be used to process withdrawals. We don’t even have an option of applying for Mastercard debit cards from paypal which are used to withdraw money from any ATM with a Mastercard logo. Now, that leaves Kenya with 2 options. You open a US bank acount, very difficult these days after the passing of the Patriot Act. You need to go to US physically to open a bank account as most if not all banks there have stringent KYC (know your customer) rules. The second option is to get a “Virtual” US bank account. For the Virtual account, you don’t need to go to the US. You first need to have a Payoneer card. To get a Payoneer card, you must have been registered as a freelancer in any of the following freelancing websites; vWorker.com, freelancer.com, guru.com, oDesk.com, scriptlance.com etc (view all options at http://www.payoneer.com). Once you have this card, you need to have at least three loads in your card, that is, at least your card must have been used to receive money from a client three times. To speed things up, you might get a friend to post projects for you on these sites, and then pay you through the site–and refund the money to your friend, including transaction charges of course, lol. Afterwards, you can apply to have a US virtual bank account. Its actually a real bank account with an account number and ABA (routing) number. You may then add this account to your PayPal account. Once you receive money through PayPal, you can withdraw it to the Virtual bank account. Once the money is deposited in that account, it is automatically redirected to your card and you can withdraw it from any ATM with a MasterCard Logo (Barclays, Pesapoint, KCB, CFC Stanbic) or use it in any POS shop (Uchumi, Nakumatt)
you can send me an email jamesnjenga4jc@yahoo.com
am a member of such sites but the problem is that the funds i have are in pp and i canot transfer except they say i should have us account. how will i transfer to these other freelance for me to use payoneer?
Get a US bank account then, or better still, get a virtual US bank account from Payoneer by following the procedure I have outlined in one of the comments I have made here. I don’t see the need to repeat myself as the comment is long. Look for it.
This is excellent news!! Now how fast can Equity get it’s act together and enable us to withdraw money or will another Kenyan bank step up
i used equity to verify my account.
my hitch with pp is that they are very ready to withdraw money from you card but are not willing to to pay any back to it. i wonder even why they are verifying it with money
I would not say ecommerce is going to take off as you cannot withdraw your paypal funds to a local bank account.
If only Clickbank.com could follow suit, that would be awesome!
am loving whatever my eyes is seeing. Paypal Kenya. Definately other measures will follow like full integration with our local banks. For now lets appreciate a mile..
It is an opportune time for some developer to make a Kenyan solution for this, maybe PayPal-to-MPESA
well, if the rumours about PayPal working with Equity turn out to be true, that will actually be a reality (by default). If you have MKesho account with Equity, you could then withdraw money from PayPal to your Mkesho account, and afterwards withdraw the same using Mpesa. Likewise you could make a deposit on the MKesho account using Mpesa, and then fund your PayPal account from the bank account using the same funds. Actually, I don’t think anyone needs to develop anything, the mechanisms are already there!!!
Kelvin I appreciate what we discuss here. Now I agree with promulgated kabisa, and i really cannot wait for PayPal to fully function in Kenya. Is there nothing we can do like start petitions or something where interested parties can do a signup or something and we approach PayPal? Second is we prior were discussing about payments in Kenya and since then I have been using moneybookers.com which directly sends me money to my National Bank Account. They charge you about $3.00 for this and the bank in turn charges you around Ksh 700. So in total about Ksh 1,