“PayPal we don’t need you anymore. What brings you now after years of marginalisation (limited access, high fees)?”
That’s been one of the loudest reactions from Nigerians on X since news broke that PayPal is properly returning to the country, this time through a partnership with Paga. Some see it as poetic justice. Others see it as something else entirely: a strategic turning point that could cautiously redraw power lines in Nigerian fintech.
So let’s ask the real question beneath the noise: in this deal, who actually stands to benefit more? PayPal or Paga?
This is a product‑strategy teardown, not to force an answer down your throat. I’ll lay out the structure of the deal, what each side gains, and the risks for everyone else. You decide where you land.
What actually changed with the PayPal–Paga deal?
For years, Nigerians had a complicated relationship with PayPal. Limited access, “send‑only” accounts for many, and a long history of restrictions driven by fraud and risk concerns. In that gap, we built our own routes. Cross‑border freelancers and small businesses leaned on Grey, Geegpay, Cleva, Card Remit, Raenest, Wise, crypto hacks, and a patchwork of solutions powered by Flutterwave, Paystack, and others.
This new move is different. PayPal has returned to Nigeria through Paga, not as a standalone service. Nigerians can now link their PayPal accounts directly to Paga wallets, receive money via PayPal, and withdraw in naira using Paga’s local rails. Paga moves that money into bank accounts, wallets, bill payments, and merchant payments, just as it already does for domestic flows.
Then Tayo Oviosu, Paga’s CEO, added one critical line on LinkedIn: “Only PayPal Nigeria accounts linked to Paga are enabled for receiving money.” Effectively, Paga becomes the front door for official PayPal receivables into Nigeria for freelancers, creators, or SMEs that want to be paid via PayPal.
PayPal’s angle: Low‑friction, high‑leverage re-entry
For PayPal, partnering with Paga is like renting a room at Airbnb. The upside is fairly straightforward, instead of trying to rebuild deep local infrastructure from scratch. Paga already has wallets, agent networks, regulatory relationships, merchant tools, and domestic rails. Plugging into that via API is faster, cheaper, and safer than going solo in a market where regulators and risk concerns have been a friction point in the past.
There’s also a trust and UX layer. Many Nigerians have had mixed experiences with foreign fintechs and remain wary of direct relationships with them.
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On the other hand, Paga is a familiar local brand with millions of users and agents, and years of market visibility. If onboarding into PayPal’s world happens through Paga’s interface, the experience feels less like “exposing yourself to a foreign system” and more like “using a Nigerian app that happens to connect you to the world.” That’s behavioral design in action. Lower the psychological barrier by wrapping the global inside the local.
On top of that, PayPal is not coming empty‑handed. It brings an established global ecosystem with over 400 million users, more than 30 million merchants, and integrations across 200+ markets. Nigeria becomes one more node in that web. For PayPal, the deal looks like a textbook product‑led market entry. Fast, asset‑light, and plugged into an existing local champion.
Paga’s angle: From strong local player to possible hub
Now flip the lens. Where does this leave Paga?
In valuation rankings, names like Flutterwave, OPay, Moniepoint, Interswitch, PalmPay, Kuda, and Paystack often dominate the headlines, with Paga somewhere in the mix but not always the loudest. Yet beneath that noise, Paga has spent over a decade building a robust payments ecosystem. Agents, merchants, wallets, and financial inclusion rails that process trillions of naira.
“In 2021, we processed 35 million transactions worth ₦1.2 trillion,” Tayo Oviosu said. “By May 2022, we had already matched that value: ₦1.2 trillion across 25 million transactions. It was a signal. But at the time, we didn’t know just how big the story would become. Fast forward to today: In just 4 years, from 2021 to 2025, the value processed by Paga has grown 17x.”
Paga’s 2025 data that matters
The PayPal partnership bolts a global engine onto that local chassis. If only PayPal Nigeria accounts linked to Paga can receive money, then, for now, Paga becomes the de facto inbound rail for PayPal flows into the country. This has direct implications for the people and businesses most plugged into the global economy: freelancers billing foreign clients, creators getting paid by audiences abroad, and SMEs exporting services or digital products. Even users who currently rely on Grey, Geegpay, Cleva, Card Remit, or Raenest may feel compelled to at least open a Paga account “just for PayPal.”
Whether that initial step turns into deeper switching depends on how Paga plays the long game. If the FX rates are competitive, the experience is smooth, and the withdrawals and support are reliable, a lot of high‑value income could start landing there by default. Once inbound flows concentrate on your platform, it becomes easier to layer on credit, savings, merchant tools, and more. That’s how you move from “just another fintech” to “the hub where global and local money meet.”
What does this mean for Grey, Geegpay, Cleva, and co.?
For years, platforms like Grey, Geegpay, Cleva, Card Remit, and Raenest stepped in where PayPal fell short, providing Nigerians with virtual accounts, FX off-ramps, and workarounds to get money in and out. Merchant‑facing gateways like Flutterwave and Paystack did something similar for businesses, powering cross‑border collections behind the scenes.
The PayPal–Paga bridge doesn’t erase their value overnight, but it does change the room temperature. For a foreign client, saying “I’ll pay you via PayPal” is easier than explaining a smaller African brand. For a Nigerian freelancer or SME, one integrated flow (PayPal into Paga into naira) may feel less stressful than stitching together multiple services. Add the perception boost of being “the official partner,” and it’s not hard to see why some volume will tilt in Paga’s direction over the next 12–36 months.
Will Grey, Geegpay, Cleva, and others disappear? Unlikely. They can still win on better FX, niche features, specific corridors, or superior UX. But they probably can’t ignore the new reality. They may have to push harder on their own partnerships, whether that’s Stripe, Wise, card schemes, regional wallets, or double down on serving segments PayPal and Paga don’t prioritize.
What about OPay, Moniepoint, PalmPay, and friends?
On paper, they’re not doing exactly what Paga is doing here. They’re not primarily branded as cross‑border on‑ramps. But if Paga becomes the default home for globally earned income, the lines start to blur. Imagine a future where a large share of remote workers, creators, and SME exporters have their PayPal funds sent to Paga first. From there, Paga can offer credit based on that history, savings products aligned with that cash flow, merchant tools to help them sell more, and maybe even cards and POS rails on a wider scale.
In that world, Paga is not just “one more wallet.” It’s quietly competing in the same space as OPay and Moniepoint, but with a different anchor: global inflows rather than domestic spend alone. Whether that turns into real displacement or just sharper competition depends on how aggressively the others respond. Do they secure their own global partnerships? Do they lobby for rules that keep critical rails open rather than exclusive? Or do they assume their local dominance is enough?
Is a monopoly inevitable here?
Your instinctive fear might be “If Nigeria’s payment sector doesn’t act now, PayPal will establish a monopoly that consumes our financial ecosystem.” There’s logic in that concern. Network effects are real; when one bridge becomes the default for both sides of a market, late entrants struggle to catch up.
But monopoly isn’t automatically guaranteed. A few moving pieces still matter a lot. Regulators can decide whether exclusive access to essential rails is acceptable in the long term or requires conditions and sunset clauses.
Other fintechs can choose to stay reactive or go hunt their own alliances with global networks, card schemes, and platforms. And users, as always in Nigeria, can keep multi‑homing. It’s very normal here for someone to hold three banking apps, two wallets, and a dollar card at the same time.
So instead of assuming “we’re doomed,” a sharper framing is: the PayPal–Paga deal creates the conditions for a very strong rail. Whether that rail becomes hegemonic, just one option among many, or a catalyst that forces everyone to level up. That’s still open.
The policy question: Fortify or float?
America and China have been able to fortify their ecosystems, allowing local product teams and startups to benefit more than competitors across the border. Those countries don’t just let global firms walk in and organically outcompete domestic rails. Their markets are fortified through policy, sometimes subtly, sometimes bluntly.
Nigeria, by contrast, has often been more open and more reactive. New models emerge, scale, cause some pain, and only then does regulation kick in. With PayPal–Paga, the window is still early. Policymakers could decide, for example, that: No single partnership should be the only way to access a major global payment network long‑term.
Data residency, transparency, and interoperability rules must govern how cross‑border players plug into local rails. Multiple licensed Nigerian fintechs should have a path (maybe phased, maybe conditional) to similar capabilities, so competition lives at the service layer, not just at the gateway.
That doesn’t mean shutting PayPal out. It means designing the game, so Nigeria isn’t just a consumer of foreign infrastructure but a co‑owner of the rails that matter.
Products vs Ecosystems: The real strategic gap
Our platforms are mostly built products, not ecosystems.
Local fintechs got very good at shipping apps with slick design, fast onboarding, multi‑currency features, and nice referral codes. But few invested at PayPal’s scale in building dense networks of merchants, developers, and cross‑border use cases that make the platform hard to ignore.
PayPal, for all its flaws, spent decades cultivating over 400 million users and over 30 million merchants. That’s why, the moment it plugs into a Nigerian rail like Paga, the power balance shifts so quickly. Paga is not just integrating a feature; it is importing an entire ecosystem.
For local players, that’s the uncomfortable but useful lesson here. The next phase is not just about who has the nicest USD card or the fastest transfer screen. It’s about who can become the default in a meaningful niche, build community around it, and form alliances that are hard to unwind.
PayPal or Paga, who really wins more?
It’s clearly a win-win for both sides. PayPal gets a low‑friction way back into Africa’s biggest market, tapping into Paga’s rails, users, and regulatory footprint without rebuilding everything from scratch. Paga, in turn, gets plugged into a massive global network and positioned as the official front door for PayPal receivables into Nigeria.
From a purely global perspective, Nigeria is one more important node in PayPal’s web. From a Nigerian vantage point, this one partnership could, if left completely unchecked and unmatched, lift Paga into a uniquely central position: the place where a lot of global‑to‑local money is forced to pass. Whether that makes Paga “the biggest” is debatable and depends on many other factors, such as execution, competition, and regulation, but the structural upgrade is hard to deny.
If regulators are thoughtful, they can channel this deal into a catalyst for a stronger, more competitive ecosystem instead of quiet concentration.
If local fintechs get serious about partnerships and policy, not just features, they can still shape the outcome rather than simply reacting to it.
If users stay pragmatic as Nigerians always do, they’ll reward whatever actually works, not just whatever trends on X.
Right now, the structure tilts toward Paga gaining disproportionate local power from a global engine. Whether that turns into dominance, healthy leadership, or missed opportunity is exactly what the next few years will decide.
About the Author
Daxonétété William is a product strategist and writer who helps African founders build products designed to win in local markets first, then on the global stage. You can follow him on LinkedIn.
