Flutterwave Collaborates with PayPal on African Payments
Flutterwave says it has partnered with United States payment giant, PayPal, to facilitate online payments among African customers via its platforms.
In a statement, the company said the collaboration will connect small and medium enterprises with the more than 377 million PayPal account holders globally, eliminating the barrier to cross-border commerce.
It added that Flutterwave’s integration with PayPal will be operational across 50 African countries and worldwide.
It would be recalled that online payments got a boost with the COVID-19 pandemic as people rely on mobile apps, others for shopping and paying bills.
Like other companies in the digital payments sector, San Jose, California-based PayPal has profited from the boom in online transactions that pushed more business into the virtual realm.
PayPal‘s 377 million+ users made transactions that saw PayPal end the year with a $936 billion total payment volume for the year 2020.
This trillion dollar opportunity didn’t include most African businesses until this new integration between Flutterwave and PayPal.
The statement said flutterwave merchants in Kenya, South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Mauritius, Malawi, Mozambique & Senegal are able to easily accept payments from PayPal users worldwide.
Flutterwave has said it is positioning to be an African payment platform for multinationals entering new markets.
Founded in 2016 by Nigerians and headquartered in San Francisco, the firm has processed over 140 million transactions.
CEO and co-founder Olugbenga Agboola told Reuters last week that Flutterwave could consider a New York listing after it raised $170 million from investors to expand its customer base, pushing its valuation up to more than $1 billion.
It is nearly impossible for businesses in some African countries to receive money from PayPal.
While the payments giant has not given reasons why this is so, speculation hints at factors like insufficient regulation and poor banking security in said countries.
That might be a thing of the past for some businesses as Flutterwave today is announcing a collaboration with PayPal to allow PayPal customers globally to pay African merchants through its ‘Pay with PayPal’ feature.
Via this partnership, African businesses can connect with the more than 377 million PayPal accounts globally and overcome the challenges presented by the highly fragmented and complex payment and banking infrastructure on the continent.
According to CEO Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola, this will happen via a Flutterwave integration with PayPal so merchants can add PayPal as a payment option when receiving money outside the continent.
“In a nutshell, we’re bringing more than 300 million PayPal users to African businesses so they can accept payments across the continent,” he said to TechCrunch.
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“Our mission at the company has always been to simplify payments for endless possibilities, and from when we started, it has always been about global payments. So despite having the largest payment infrastructure in Africa, we want to have arguably all the important payments systems in the world on our platform.”
Since the company’s expansion to Africa, it has maintained a one-sided relationship with most countries on the continent, allowing them only to send money.
And according to its website, only 12 African countries can send and receive money on the platform, but to varying degrees. They include Algeria, Botswana, Egypt, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Senegal, Seychelles and South Africa.
Users in countries who are not afforded the luxury to do so have to rely on using the PayPal account of a friend or family, based in countries where payments can be received.
Next, they request the funds via bank transfer, leading to more incurred costs or use other cross-border money platforms like WorldRemit.
Flutterwave Collaborates with PayPal on African Payments/ How does a PayPal user pay a Flutterwave merchant?
As a PayPal user, it’s pretty much a familiar flow. On a Flutterwave merchant’s checkout page, look out for the “Pay with PayPal” option.
Click the “Pay with PayPal” button, and follow the prompt as it redirects you to your PayPal account to complete your payment as usual.
That’s it. After the payment, you’re automatically redirected to the merchant’s checkout page as payment is confirmed on the modal.
Flutterwave Collaborates with PayPal on African Payments
