By Bizna Brand Analyst
In Kenya the only bank that allows for direct transfer fro Paypal to an account is Equity. And even with this bank, it takes days before you can get the money that was transferred fro Paypal. other banks have completely ignored Paypal yet so many people use it.
A lot of Kenyans do academic writing jobs and they make good money at it. The problem is that payments are always made through Paypal. These people are forced to rely on untrustworthy brokers to whom they send the money and get an MPESa transfer. Thes brokers tend to charge extremely high-interest rates because they are aware that not many options are available.
I have personally written for any foreign online publications and payments were mostly made through Paypal. Some paid their content providers through World Remit (which I think is better because you get funds directly to your bank or mobile money account from abroad) but most prefer Paypal.
Since I didn’t have an Equity account, I had to rely on Chura.co.ke. Chura offers the exchange of airtime to cash or Paypal funds to Mpesa. It is reliable and efficient but again – too costly. Either way, Chura feels safer than the brokers. I heard that Safaricom was in talks with Paypal but nothing much has been said so far., nothing concrete has been revealed.
According to World Bank indexes, today more than 30% percent of global payments are made online. As this number continues to rise and more and more merchants both large and small are understanding the importance of accepting online payments. This creates a wide range of opportunity for new technologies and niche markets. While there are many reasons to get into the market, few have as compelling of a reason as banks. Banks in particular have much to gain by aligning with all online payment services.
By not providing online fund transfer options to their customers, banks lose out on valuable revenues from a rapidly growing market. This is a big mistake. To date, consumers and merchants are served by a host of relatively new entrants such as Chura, bypassing the institutions that these groups have relied on for more than a hundred years to meet their banking and purchasing needs. Not only do the financial institutions know best how their business customers can be served but they can also gain valuable data and revenue streams from opening themselves to all online fund transfers.
The benefits to banks are numerous. First and foremost, by offering this service to their customers they not only enhance their relationship with them, but increase their revenue streams. Offering this sort of service means that banks will also end up owning substantial and measurable data from the use of online funds transfer from abroad. This data tracks diaspora input into the economy, earnings, consumer spending habits, demographic data, business customer income/spending and can be sold back to customers, not only creating an additional financial incentive but increasing the value they can provide their merchant customers across the board. This can help them forge stronger relationships with their business customers, as well as improve service by speeding payments into business bank accounts, potentially attracting new customers.
On the flip side, business customers (merchants) can receive a variety of benefits as well. For instance, by withdrawing Paypal funds from their own banks, merchants can get quicker access to funds within their business banking account. The bank branded solutions already in operation also typically have higher safety and security features too.
So it’s our call to all banks to implement Paypal
