re: #PayPal4Ghana: Why it matters

PayPal’s corporate headquarters in California.

For those of you reading this post and do not know, PayPal is an international e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. Online money transfers serve as electronic alternatives to paying with traditional paper methods, such as checks and money orders.PayPal is an acquirer, performing payment processing for online vendors, auction sites, and other commercial users, for which it charges a fee. The fee depends on what currency or payments the seller is using.

The company was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion later in 2002. As of 2008, PayPal’s total payment volume, the total value of transactions, was US$60 billion, an increase of 27 percent over the previous year, and US$71 billion in 2009, an increase of 19 percent over the previous year. In January 2008, PayPal acquired Fraud Sciences, a privately held Israeli start-up company with expertise in online risk tools, for $169 million, in order to enhance PayPal’s proprietary fraud management systems. you can read more here I must admit that Paypal entering this space would mean a lot of flourishing e-commerce transaction for e-ready businesses both in and around Ghana, and would empower B2C and C2B transactions further boosting trade and the economy.

Nonetheless i believe we as a people and myself being part of those trying hard to put Ghana on the face of world technology should take this as an opportunity to develop something that works. No body can develop an app in the US and get it to work perfectly here in our humble part of the world (particularly shopping and payment systems) as we are a unique people and our culture differs from that of another (this mistake many developers have made and learnt from) 

Let’s be inspired

My purpose in this post is not to give you alternatives to PayPal (you can find that kind of article in another friends post here. I am here to challenge and inspire us to build our own payment platforms that work and and I mean work better and possibly compete with giants of the Paypal and Square Calibre. I will try as much as possible to exhaust the reason why we do not necessarily need Paypal as a game changer i believe we can change the game way before Paypal step their giant foot in Ghana.

Mpesa in Kenya though haven’t gotten to these levels are well achieving same in their part of the world and soon they would be the first point of call for businesses that want to enter their markets with pay platforms (if they haven’t already) I understand the frustrations one faces in the quest to make online payments from Ghana to foreign merchants, I have been a victim of such one too many times. You go through the hustle of adding products to your cart and when you proceed to checkout you are only greeted with the sad message on your screen saying “Pay with PayPal” which most of the time brings all work done to naught.

Truth be told Paypal has blacklisted our country and you cannot conveniently sign up for a Paypal merchant or buyer account from Ghana the reasons to this from SODs musings and all over the internet haven’t been given with speculations of fraud and bad addressing systems been made, but if these speculations are true; are there no scammers in the US? Do they not have fraudsters is Washington, New York and Los Angeles? Let’s wake up, these platforms do not have us at heart they are concentrating their efforts at building what works well for them and that is a good enough sign for us to begin to do same. It’s not time for us to wait for them to empower our purchasing game it’s time for us to tighten the competition amongst ourselves and build our own rules.

I know some of you reading this blogpost may have by now concluded that I am just making soundless chimes and tooting dead horns, well in actual fact in this blog post I aim to throw light on mPower and iWallet. I have come into close contact with these two platforms mainly due to my work and practice as an e-commerce activist and developer. MPower and iWallet together are processing hundreds of transactions, grossing millions of cedis in online payments in a month which makes a lot of business sense. Imagine the impact these platforms would have if we could patronize, critique and provide adequate feedback, coupled with the right market attitude to the folks at Dreamoval and SMSgh, these platforms would metamorphose into global masterpieces.

We as a people need to encourage and patronize our own we need to realize that change starts from a point, those of us in the technology sector should rise up to the challenge forgetting when government will pass this law or enforce that policy (because they never will and might end up being too late if they do at all) and provide well researched solutions to our many challenges we face here in Ghana.

For me it is refreshing to note that Paypal has come a long way in terms of challenges and that they were engulfed in many trying moments during their baby days, needless to talk of the many hacks that have happened causing them to loose thousands of consumer dollars, not forgetting the many complaints that consumers and service providers have had using the product. But through all of this, like a stubborn child to her parents, Americans held on to the dream, yes they have made giant strides but we must acknowledge the fact that these strides we’re made upon a foundation. If Paypal made mistakes during its formative years we can welcome mistakes from our own and provide feedback as to how smooth or rough our experience on the service was through the right channel this is what builds brands and keeps brands.

I see a future for iWallet and mPower, I do not doubt the fact that they can take us to the cashless age and maintain a virtual-cash economy and further build relationships that would enhance global commerce.

Ghana is blessed with many world class technology innovators and thinkers who are in no doubt yet to change the face of worldwide technology with stunning applications and it is amazing to be a part of this. This blogpost would be touted as good if and only if it was able to get you to believe in the Ghanaian technology ecosystem once again.

#MoreVim