Verifying a Nigerian Paypal account with First Bank Naira Mastercard

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".