Verifying a Nigerian Paypal account with First Bank Naira Mastercard

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links which may earn us a commission when you click on them.

Posted by Felix Okoli on Thursday October 2, 2014 at 9:39:8:

With Paypal Nigeria now live, many Nigerians have joined the network and have become part of one of the best payment processors in the world. Paypal is a global brand that allows members to send and receive money online without the need for exposing their card details to multiple merchants. With Paypal, all a user needs to do is just add his card details to Paypal and authorize the platforms to make payments on his behalf without the need of providing those card details again on any other platform.

When Paypal arrived Nigeria, it allowed a lot of users to register but as registered users, they still could not send money except they verified their accounts by linking a credit/debit card and brands like Visa and Mastercard which operate already in Nigeria now work in partnership with Paypal.

Not every Nigerian knows what it really takes to add or link a Naira card to Paypal and some have complained of difficulties with getting theirs to work even after linking it. Well, I hope this blog post would at least be helpful because this is based on my experience with adding and verifying my Payment method with Paypal using a First Bank of Nigeria issued Visa Naira Card.

I recently linked my First bank issued Naira debit Mastercard to my Paypal Nigeria account and it was a successful process. I've already sent payments to people using the card and it worked just like a POS payment. The only thing is that your Paypal Nigeria account is still denominated in US dollars and so the equivalent currency exchange rate is what will be used on your Naira account. The exchange rate used on my card was about N167 which I would say is not really bad.

How to do it
================
- First of all I logged into my Paypal Nigeria account at paypal.com/ng
- Click on the link: Profile > Add Credit/Debit cards
- Chose to add a card
- I selected my card brand as Mastercard
- Entered the card number in the box provided
- I chose the expiry date printed n my card
- I also entered the 3 digit code at the back called the CVV
- Entered my billing address which should be the same address you use at your bank
- Clicked on the button that says Add card

I got a reply saying that it was successful and I also clicked on the button that says to link and confirm card.

- I also clicked the button that says Click on continue and Paypal will inform you that a charge will be made on your account.

It now gives Paypal Nigeria the authority to charge your card about $1.95 which will reflect in your account details within 24 hrs and it would contain a Paypal Code which you'll use to verify your account and be able to send money afterwards.

I received the Paypal code when my bank sent me an SMS alert in the morning. It was in the format PP*1234CODE

After you've received the bank transaction alert with the Paypal code, note the code.

- Go to Paypal Nigeria website and log into your account

- Click on the link that says "Confirm my debit or credit card"

- Enter the 4 digit Paypal code in the box provided and click the Confirm button. You'd see it in the format *PP1234CODE where 1234 or any other given numbers is the Paypal Code

If successful, you'll get a feedback page saying "You've successfully confirmed your card
Thank you! We'll refund all charges within 24 hours."

Now, when you send payments with your Paypal account, that card will be used as your payment card. If you are using more than 1 card, then you will also be able to choose which of them is your main payment card by clicking on "Make Primary".

Comments:
Re: Verifying a Nigerian Paypal account with First Bank Naira Mastercard Posted by Anthony Onyeoziri on Wednesday January 28, 2015 at 7:47:59:

This is quite helpful.
Please your write-up is centered around making payments. Can we also receive payments via this account?

Re: Verifying a Nigerian Paypal account with First Bank Naira Mastercard Posted by Felix Okoli on Wednesday January 28, 2015 at 7:47:59:

For now, one can't receive payments into Paypal Nigeria accounts. It is only Nigerians who have foreign Paypal accounts that can receive paypal payments for now.

Re: Verifying a Nigerian Paypal account with First Bank Naira Mastercard Posted by Ali on Wednesday March 18, 2015 at 14:56:49:

hi, I am unable to use my first bank mastercard for PayPal
I have logged in to the paypal website but I was unable to connect it with my paypal account. pls any help will be appreciated.

Re: Verifying a Nigerian Paypal account with First Bank Naira Mastercard Posted by Felix Okoli on Wednesday March 18, 2015 at 14:56:49:

I hope it is a Nigerian paypal account and not a foreign one. If it's a Nigerian Paypal, then the problem might be with your bank. Do you have money in the bank or not? Is the bank account still active? If it's still active and there is money there, you can keep trying. I've used my First bank mastercard for making Paypal payments on several occasions and it works pretty well.

Re: Verifying a Nigerian Paypal account with First Bank Naira Mastercard Posted by Dorothy on Monday April 13, 2015 at 10:17:0:

is it possible to link PayPal to my dollar account in order to collect my money in dollars

Re: Verifying a Nigerian Paypal account with First Bank Naira Mastercard Posted by Felix Okoli on Monday April 13, 2015 at 10:17:0:

You cannot link a Paypal Nigeria account to dollar account that is in Nigeria. You can't use it to withdraw or receive payments for now except for making payments.