Ineligibility of a country to receive payment from abroad is not a new thing in the African ecosphere anymore, as various reasons as constituting this barrier, few are as follows:
- Contradicting payment terms and policy between these payment companies and black countries governments
- Online fraud
Whichever way it is, this guide has been carefully composed with a multipurpose solution in mind to resolve liable issues attached with the inability to receive money from overseas in Africa to your local bank
Without further ado, let’s quickly see what this guide has to unravel
Also Read: Paypal alternatives for receiving electronic payment in Africa
Why You Need to receive money from overseas in Africa
I won’t literally specify the total number of payment services in this guide, as I’ll probably add more in the nearest future if you fall into any of the below categories
- Freelancer: I’d regard you as a person who wants to receive payment for your service
- Digital marketer: I’d regard you as a person who sells digital products [ebook, courses, visual content,
e-commerce] but finds it hard to receive foreign currencies
- Strictly withdrawal: falls into the category who wants to receive cash from family, friends and whosoever you desire
- Lesser charges rate: who literally wants to escape from [payoneer, western union, Remitly, moneygram] higher transfer charges rate and more
Also Read: How to start Ecommerce business in Nigeria: 7 simple steps
Payment Gateways/Processors to receive money from overseas in Africa
This guide accommodates tough guys doing the heavy lifting for the payment/invoice management, kindly use them are as follows
Using Flutterwave to receive money from overseas in Africa
Flutterwave is a big and influential establishment founded in 2014 and launched in 2016, they processed 107 million transactions worth $5.4 billion according to company data as of 2020
Flutterwave has 2 distinct products:
Flutterwave product for individuals [barter by flutterwave]
You may proceed to download their mobile app from here, but it’s actually best for your payer
Keep reading to see why
You get the below features from the mobile app:
- Virtual card [US dollars funded in your own currency]
- Buy online products
- Pay bills [airtime, internet data]
- Send and receive money from friends and family
As far as business is concerned, the next point is the most effective panacea to our pains right here in Africa
Also Read: Reasons My Debit Card Was declined [And How To Fix Them]
Rave by flutter wave [flutterwave for business]
Flutterwave for business is a platform that enables you to accept payments globally
You can access your dashboard via browser to monitor your payments, customer activities and so much more
It’s an in one business payment management solution, you can also embed it into your website to power your checkout
Steps to use flutterwave for business
Flutterwave for business payment links option will be our case study, create an account to see what it looks like from your dashboard, but I’d only give the proper breakdown of each category, not subcategory, since you’ve signed up for an account
Also, am emphasizing the most important features, as flutterwave for business is basically an online storefront for physical products, and not for digital product
We’re just using 2 paramount features “payment link” and “checkout”
Transaction: as the word suggests, the history of your previous and active transactions
Balance: this comprises your balance history and settlement
Payment link: this is where the magic starts, payment link enables you to create a link for your digital product hosted on servers or sites
How?
There are 3 various “payment link” options
Single charge: used to create a link where your customer will
pay you to get your product
- Enter the single charge option, then supply all your desired info, inside the “redirect after payment” textbox is where you input the link of your hosted product on your [google drive account, dropbox or amazon web service] or other hosting platforms
You should have known your android has “google drive” associated to every Gmail
Upload your product on it, then copy the file’s link to the google drive file into the “redirect after payment” link textbox from your “edit payment link” pop up, option
When your customers initiate a successful payment, they’ll be redirected to your digital product link/page for download
Subscription link: it’s meant to enable a subscription plan for your service or product, where you could choose interval [hourly, weekly, monthly]
- Access the subscription link option then choose an interval of subscription, that’s all
Donation page: enables you to create a link where you could get a donation from your payer, just like receiving money without offering a product or anything in exchange
- You already know the drill, access the donation page option, and supply all your detail, that’s all
Note: Ensure to choose dollar currency from your menu when you know your checkout would be opened globally, Otherwise choose the currency of the specific region of your Choice
You should also leave the “redirect payment link” field empty if you solely want to receive payment with these options without offering product
Settings: Scroll down to the bottom of the dashboard to tweak a few options like the option to make your customer pay for “transaction charges” or you, which is one of the upsides of Flutterwave
Access it from the far right of the tabs “account settings” after clicking the settings option
Ensure your payer is from flutterwave supported countries to download the barter mobile app and fund the wallet to initiate payment through the “pay by barter” option from the checkout
Otherwise, they should contact their bank when the option pops up from the checkout if they so much desire the “card option”
Barter mobile app supported countries
Until flutterwave restore the “PayPal payment” option back to their checkout, the ideal option is for payer to stick to payment via barter or contact bank/card issuer to enable their international card payment
Also Read: 15 Ways To Create Multiple Online Source Of Income In Nigeria
Using Transfergo to receive money from overseas in Africa
Transfergo.com is a registered payment service provider regulated by UK financial conduct authority
They’re an electronic money institution established in the Republic of Lithuania, authorized and regulated by the bank of Lithuania
Transfergo charges a transfer fee from your depositor, a fee of 0.6%-1.5% for the currency conversion per transaction, which also depends on both the transferred amount and the country where your depositor originates
This is not only appealing but also make the provider competitive in the money transfer space and is a lot better than the 4%-5% margin you’ll be charged if you transfer money with a bank or via most of the payment gateways out there
Transfergo payment features
- You have to wait just 30 minutes to get your
cash within 30-60 minutes with the £2.99 fee model
- Wait just 12 hours at most to get your payment with the
£1.99 fee model
- Lastly, you have to wait 24 hours at most to receive your cash with the £0.00 model
To receive your cash, allow your sender to take on the leg work by hitting the send button, it takes a few minutes to set up, yours is to send your bank details over, and dictate to him/her your preferred delivered model from the aforementioned list above, then watch the magic afterward
They have almost 20,000 Trustpilot reviews with a 4.8 trust score, the conspicuous downside of this provider is you can’t transfer money from the USA as when crafting this blueprint on how to receive money from around the world in Africa, but you could send to it
They have a mobile app, but I prefer their web version for its friendly interface, and it’s so quick
Always ensure your payer is coming through from a supported country
Also Read: Starting A Supermarket business In Nigeria? 10 Things To Know
Using Worldremit to receive money from overseas in Africa
Worldremit.com is another payment service just like transfergo, the difference is worldremit houses more country lists while transfergo offers few but exclusive
Also, while worldremit don’t have stable charges, your payer sure do see the fee while transacting
Transfergo enables you to do as you wish with the transaction fee/speed models
My verdict is choosing transfergo if it’s supported in your country
Also Read: How to start a successful delivery logistics business in Nigeria
Using Gumroad to receive money from overseas in Africa
This part comprises 3 applications
- As flutterwave alternative
- Direct payment
- Withdrawal
As flutterwave alternative
If flutterwave is not supported in your country, which is very rare, use gumroad
Gumroad has one of the best checkouts on the web, why?
- First on, i doubt if they know they’re also payment service aside from being an online marketplace, with their “received balance on hold for a week custom” before payment disbursement
This enables you to get a PayPal payment receiving account to plug into your gumroad before the payday [friday]
- Also, I won’t emphasize the next reason why gumroad payment withholding is a blessing from another standpoint as some greedy people could leverage it
I know some digital product creators already know what am hiding for safety reasons, because when buyers initiate this approach am hiding, it triggers PayPal attention to be finicky about your account, now imagine if you’re one of these marketers that cut corners to have one
So many accounts have been closed with huge unsettled payments from this act
Where gumroad comes into play, these are the challenges gumroad undergo for you, behind the scene when they collect your payment prior to future disbursement
Aside from the friendly checkout, most checkouts either enable payment directly into international bank accounts or digital wallets [paypal]
So, if you’re not in paypal payment receiving countries, you can still abandon your cash in gumroad wallet for a week while looking for an eligible account to help withdraw your cash for transfer via
transfergo or worldremit
I have been doing this and it works so well for me than to manipulate “Stripe or PayPal” that i might wake up to, with closed or banned account’s notification or watch my earnings dead in the eye with the inability to link my card, which was the funniest scenario that happened to a Twitter marketer like me
Steps to use gumroad online payment
- Sign up for gumroad
- Set up your account
- You should use youtube video for a quick setup
So long you can get a friend’s PayPal receiving account email, you may plug it in your gumroad account to receive even a payment that’s no sale’s related
How?
By creating a fake or dummy product and send to your payer for Purchase
When they purchase, the payment will definitely reflect on your account
Am stating this approach as some people may not buy the transfergo or worldremit approach that reveals a lot about payee via local bank account details
Direct payment
If you’re in flutterwave supported countries, here is a trick that will cancel out gumroad as an intermediary
How?
Autoresponder is a tool that e-mail providers and some online marketplaces provide to push free ebooks or digital products to your e-mail
The basic purpose is for collecting people/lead e-mail, you know when you enter your name & email to get those free ebooks
When you create a “product page” from your gumroad dashboard, ensure it’s a free product
This product is your “sales page” but in pdf, remember, the page where you explain or discuss your product or offer with a call to action link [CTA] “link”
What is this link? The payment link you generated from flutterwave to receive your payment
All you need is to paste this link into your free eBook/sales page, so when your customer download your free ebook through gumroad, you’ve already used gumroad tool without paying a dime for the tool called “autoresponder” that helps you throw your free ebook to your customer or lead [they’re yet to be a customer until they pay, so we call them lead]
After they go through your free eBook for purchase, the payment link in your free guide will redirect them to flutterwave checkout for payment
Guess what? The cash flows into your flutterwave wallet for withdrawal to your local bank account
This do not only save you from gumroad little charges but also save you the stress of contacting your friend for his PayPal’s email address for withdrawal
How do you create your free eBook, just use Google docs and thank me later
Also Read: Starting A Football Viewing Centre In Nigeria: 3 unavoidable steps
Note
Ensure persuading your payer to use the barter mobile app for payment
Why? International debit/bank account payment often requires contacting the bank to enable the option
Withdrawal
Gumroad automatically pays its sellers every Friday via direct deposit, debit card, or PayPal, but only to creators or sellers in the [USA, Canada, UK, and Australia]
For everyone else, it’s through PayPal and the minimum withdrawal is $10
Your money must spend 2 Fridays in their wallet before it’s ripe for Disbursement
As a digital marketer, when they refer customers to your product within their platform they take a 10% additional fee, so don’t feel bewildered when you get an unexpected sale but with the special cut, I won’t discuss their pricing and deduction per sale in this guide
Also Read: How to setup a successful cement block business in Nigeria
Steps to withdraw your payment without active PayPal or
supported PayPal account
- Login to your gumroad dashboard
- Click on your balance
- Click your payout settings
- Fill all the entries
- Find someone you trust and also eligible to receive payment with Paypal
- Supply the PayPal e-mail into the required field
- Click ok/withdraw
Wait a few hours if it’s your second Friday, your first withdrawal might require you to reach out to them on Twitter if it exceeds 3 Friday's, never panic, that’s their policy for newbie
They’d quickly attend to you after dropping your situation under their tweet or tagging them
They dislike this approach as they’ve supported email
[
Ensure your friend country is in tune with transfergo or worldremit, then send him/her your bank details, that’s all
Supports
Yeah, you need to contact these huge companies if you have any issues with your transaction, they’re good with what they do though, but you still need their support in case of any glitches
Flutterwave
Their most active spot is their Twitter support handle
Twitter: @FlwSupport
Transfergo
They’ve phone numbers and an active Facebook page, they respond within an hour via email
E-mail:
Also Read: 10 untapped businesses to start with #50,000 in Nigeria
Conclusion
This guide is one size fits all, if you see this guide from Europe, Asia, or other continents, you either stick to flutterwave or use gumroad at once
As over 70% of European countries are enabled to receive payment with PayPal likewise other continents excluding Africa
You probably have family or loyal friends you could plug their PayPal email address to gumroad for withdrawal directly to your African local bank account from overseas
If you’re an African digital marketer who wants to sell and receive payment for your digital product around the African continent, please use Paystack
Paystack requires you to sign up and set up your product page in your local currency and automatically receive in all currencies across the African continent