Mr. EFI DAHAN is the regional director of Sub-Saharan Africa and Israel at PayPal. He is responsible for market development, creating partnership with large merchants, collaboration with banks and channels as well as consumers acquisition. In this interview with OLUFEMI OMOTAYO of EntrepreNEWS, he explained how PayPal will work in Nigeria. Excerpts
EntrepreNEWS: There are reports that many Nigerian entrepreneurs are now sceptical about the coming of PayPal to Nigeria, especially because of the time it’s taken. What took you so long?
Efi Dahan: That’s a good question. First of all, entering a new market requires a huge investment. We need to be careful about our plans and do all the preparations before introducing the service. We are very serious about our business. We are dealing with people’s money and you need to be careful with that. I think the good news is; it took a while but we are here! We are very happy. This is the first phase of our business here. I can assure you that we are very committed to expanding the business here, which is why we set up the extensive agreement with FirstBank in order to work together with the best partner here. They have a very good reputation in this market. They have a good knowledge of this market and we can bring our value from global and international network to offer the best service in this country.
EntrepreNEWS: Since this is the official launch of PayPal in Nigeria, why do some people still complain that it has limited features?
Efi Dahan: We offer this service like in any other country. People can can open PayPal account and use their credit or debit card regardless which bank is the issuer of these cards – visa or MasterCard – and they can do their wallet PayPal account and start making transactions. Those who do this through the online banking system of FirstBank, the cards are automatically verified. The bank has KYC for its customers. Other people that are not part of FirstBank online banking system can also open PayPal accounts. Whenever they need to verify their PayPal account once they reach certain amount of transaction, there is a very clear process on how to do it. Just go to our website to see how to do it. For instance you need to do transaction for 2 dollars; you get the code for your credit card statement. Take the code and put in the PayPal website and PayPal will verify that this is your card. That is how we do the verification. In the bank, this is the benefit: once you do it through the bank you don’t need to go through the process. It is verified from day 1. This is very important to understand: there are no limits to the transactions. You can buy and shop from any of the million of PayPal merchants worldwide.
EntrepreNEWS: What’s your plan for Nigeria subsequently? Are you thinking of adding more banks?
Efi Dahan: we are celebrating today the exclusive deal with the bank. We believe this is the best partner for us to expand the business. We are having a major launching just to open the market for Nigerians to do online shopping. Definitely we’ve signed an agreement with the bank in order to develop the business. It’s a long-term commitment from both sides to offer more and more services in the future.
EntrepreNEWS: How does this work? Educate our readers
Efi Dahan: it’s very easy; you can either go to paypal.com and just open a PayPal account and fill in simple details. Then you have to link your funding source in order to do transactions. The credit source could either be credit or debit cards like visa and MasterCard enabled for international transactions. And that’s it. You can start doing shopping with PayPal. Go to any website that accept PayPal, press the PayPal button and answer your username and password then press the button and it’s done. It’s as simple as that.
