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Yes. I'm talking about Paypal Payments from Nigeria and not from a foreign based account. Ever since Paypal Nigeria was launched and worked with my UBA Naira Mastercard, I've been searching for foreign based shopping websites that ship to Nigeria and also accepted Paypal payments and one of the ones I've found is MiniInTheBox - a shopping website that ships internationally and allows one to buy from China. I also shop on sites like eBay but not with my Paypal Nigeria account yet since that carries a Nigerian billing address. I'm not sure it would be accepted by eBay or eBay sellers yet but it could. Perhaps, a Nigerian who is resident in the USA might still be able to shop on eBay and pay with a Paypal account that comes with a Nigerian billing address. The order might be accepted as long as the shipping address is a US address. Who knows?

MiniInTheBox is a bit like Lightinthebox.com and Aliexpress.com but the problem I have with with Aliexpress is that for now the only kind of payment Nigerians can use to make payment is a USD backed Visa or Mastercard and Nigerian banks don't normally provide the dollar needed to fund your card as one would have to buy it from the black market. So, Aliexpress doesn't accept Paypal or Naira based cards but MiniInTheBox on the other hand accepts Paypal from Nigeria.

How can Nigerians officially open a Paypal account or verify it? Well, I don't need to to go through the whole process of telling how to get a Paypal Nigeria account as it is now publicly available and can easily be used for Paypal by any one who at least has a debit card and a savings account. I registered for my Paypal account by simply going to www.paypal.com/ng and registering for an account just like signing up for a Facebook or Yahoo account. I later tried to verify it and after using a couple of ATM debit cards, Paypal Nigeria accepted my UBA Naira Mastercard and I've since been using that as my default card on Paypal.

MiniInTheBox allows people to buy electronic gadgets such as batteries, mobile phones, mobile phone accessories, tablets, car accessories, phone covers, screen protectors, chargers and so on.

If you have been looking for a way to buy things directly produced in China and still be able to pay with your Nigerian Paypal account, MiniInTheBox is one site I would recommend. I've tried them out and it works. I recently used them to buy a Power bank and I've already received it in a similar fashion to how Aliexpress works. They ship through postal services and hence saves you money on shipping cost. You can however opt for faster shipping services if you want an get it through a courier like DHL or Fedex.

The online shopping websites sells mostly electronic gadgets which are light and can be easily shipped as parcels through postal offices across the world. You can get an account for free, browse and add items to your cart and then checkout by paying with Paypal using your Nigerian billing and shipping address. The way my own Paypal account works with UBA is that my account normally gets debited about 24 hrs after I've completed a transaction at MiniInTheBox.

Once items have been ordered by you, you'll be able to see your order details in the order histroy and know when it has shipped and you'd also be given a tracking number to track it and know when it has arrived Nigeria. NIPOST would send you a notification when to collect your items and you would just do a pickup at the closest NIPOST office relative to the Zip code you've used in your shipping adresss.

It takes about 30 to 60 days at most to receive your order although mine just took about 20 days but that's how postal mail shipping saves you money since MiniInTheBox offers free shipping to Nigeria or perhaps, it's probably already included in the item's price.

The good thing about it is that I no longer have to provide my Visa or Mastercard details to online shopping websites like MiniInTheBox and my information would be kept secret between me and Paypal.

When it comes to pricing and billing currency, one would notice that the items listed on MiniInTheBox is in US dollars and that basically means that online shoppers coming from Nigeria and choosing to Pay with Paypal will be able to pay with their bank's daily exchange rate for the US dollar and for me, I think this is ok given that black market rates are at times outrageous. At times I've noticed that I get charged about N167, N169 or N170 by my bank for my Paypal payments but the last time I bought USD at the black market, they sold it to me for N172. Shopping with Paypal from Nigeria is cool as it allows you to pay in Naira and still keep your card details safe.

One way to stay safe when shopping online with Paypal is by avoiding using public internet cafes. Just get a private internet service since this is money in your bank you are talking about. As long as you keep your Paypal account safe, your funds will always be safe. Besides, Paypal cannot spend more than the daily limit you've placed on your debit card and so you if you are concerned about security, you can always place a spending limit on your debit card e.g. N10,000, N20,000, N50,000 or N100,000.

You know there are a growing number of online shopping websites opening up to Nigeria nowadays and it's probably not safe to just use your Debit/Credit card details on all of them. I no longer feel safe just providing my card details on any shopping websites I see and so Paypal is one way I'm using to protect myself from fraudulent shopping sites but MiniInTheBox is safe as far I know.

Shopping online with Paypal makes it more secure for you as it allows you to pay Paypal while Paypal settles the bills on your behalf. There are no fees with using Paypal to shop other than the exact fee used by the merchant. With Paypal, it is the receiver of the bills that normally pays a charge rather than the sender or buyer. The issue of transaction charges is another reason why I'm gradually switching to Paypal as my preferred option for online shopping. I've noticed that there are transaction charges normally associated to my Nigerian bank issued USD card. With Paypal however, no transaction charges for the payer and now I can also pay in Naira.


Go to MiniInTheBox



Posted by on Friday August 22, 2014 at 14:15:57:

Comments:
1
Re: MiniInTheBox ships to Nigeria and accepts Paypal payments Reply by Dolapo Kosebinu on Sunday October 26, 2014 at 14:13:41:

Thank you so much for the enlightenment,I stumbled upon miniinthebox.com few days ago,I couldn't pay for what's in my cart due to the fact that it kept re-directing me to pay via pay pal only.
I'll check the Nigeria website for paypay and register so I can pay for the product.
I must also recommend dhgate.com
I shop online there too at an amazing cheap price.
Will give you feedback after it must have been sorted out.






Shop online in Nigeria


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