PayPal has been a popular way in Kenya to accept payments for online freelancer jobs for some time now. Others use it to make payments for products and services online, mostly from stores overseas. On this front its my conservative guesstimate that PayPal users in Kenya are in the 100K range. These users will continue to increase as more and more Kenyans go online and more online stores come up.
I talked to three Kenyan PayPal early adopters, Kennedy Kachwanya, founder Finweb Kenya and kachwanya.com and prolific tech blogger, Joel Macharia, entrepreneur and founder abacus.co.ke and Brenda Wambui, founder of brainstorm.co.ke.
How long have you used PayPal?
Kachwanya: 7 years
Macharia: Over 5 years.
Wambui: Over 4 years
What is your experience with it?
Kachwanya: Back when I started using it, it was the only credible way to make online payments in Kenya. Over the years it has helped me to maintain my domain and hosting business as well as buying other products and services online. So the answer is my experience with PayPal has been very good. I also feel they have tried to make it easy for people around here to use their services, especially the new partnerships they are trying to establish with Kenyan banks like the one they have with Equity Bank.
Macharia: Payments via PayPal are fast. Withdrawals in Kenya via Equity Bank were expensive in the beginning but now they are more affordable. I have recently upgraded and I’m now using it for business.
Wambui: It has been a positive experience. I am able to pay for things abroad and received money on my account. The problem in the past was withdrawals but since the partnership with Equity Bank that is now possible. The fees for withdrawal from Equity are still high so there is still space for them to bring the fees down.
Would you recommend it?
Kachwanya: Yes. One because it is a safe means of online payment, two because it is convenient and three because it is easy to use and operate.
Macharia: Yes. Because it’s convenient, fast and it is integrated with many payment systems making easy to make payments online.
Wambui: Yes. I would recommend it because its safer as opposed to a direct connection to a debit or credit card. Another advantage is its interoperability with other payment systems. Also, its easy and cheaper to send and received money. It makes it a good alternative to money transfer services like moneygram.