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Problems Nigerian Customers Face Everyday Online

I got very pissed off the other day when I tried to order Socrates theme for WordPress. When I click on the order now button, it was redirected to ClickBank. I shook my head in disappointment.
I could not make the order because it was sold from ClickBank.com.
This is what I and many other legit Nigerians pass through everyday.
If you don’t know already, ClickBank does not accept legit business/customers from Nigeria.
So I sat down on my PC with the Prepaid Visa Card I just loaded a few days back and was filled with thoughts.
I was annoyed.
I made a call to Chuks, a fellow Nigerian blogger; he also confirmed that he had never bought anything from ClickBank because of the same issue.
I decided to search Google for answers.
I typed in “How to buy products on ClickBank from Nigeria”.
The search result revealed a lot of things.
It showed that many legit Nigerians businesses and individual were having the same problem and they desperately needed solutions to it.
I even stumbled on a discussion thread on Warrior Forum that had a marketer asking for how he could receive money from a genuine Nigerian customer.
I read it.
I didn’t really help.

Are All Nigerians Scammers?

On the thread on the Warrior Forum, a marketer complained that 2 Nigerians tried to pay him for stuff with fake PayPal accounts.
Well, I can’t authenticate that but I do know that there are some Nigerians who are involved in online scams.
Nigerian scammers exist and it is the main reason why many of these networks bar Nigerians from using their services.
But does that mean that all Nigerians are scammers?
Does it mean that 150 million people or less than a quarter of that number that go online are scammers?
Should you neglect a 150 million people market because they have some scammers wrecking havoc?
The funny thing is that Nigeria is only third in the list of countries with high fraud rates.
America and the UK seats on top of that chart. They win us hands down.
But we still get rapped for anything called online fraud.
Sad.
But lets ask and answer an important question.

Can Nigerians Legally Pay For Businesses (Products And Services) Online?

Some years ago, it wasn’t really possible but today, Nigerians banks are offering prepaid visa and MasterCard to their customers.
In fact I own two cards. My dad is into a Forex Trading and owns a Visa card too. I have many friends who own one.
My money and the Visa card is somehow useless to me because I can hardly pay for anything online with it.
Nigerians are not allowed on PayPal, fine by me but should we also be kicked out of paying for products and services legitimately when we want to pay using our prepaid Visa or MasterCards?
Does it really make business sense?
If You Don’t Do Business With Nigerians, You Are Losing Money
Joel Comm may not need my measly $77 for the Socrates theme. Maybe he makes 100 times that  daily but if a 1000 Nigerians like me, wants to order for that theme, he losses $77 000.
I don’t know if that sum is still nothing to him, maybe he still makes more than that but of course you know,  $77 000 is a sh*t load of money.
My point is, Nigerians can now pay legitimately for stuff online, so why are we still rejected by these networks.
So if you are a marketer or business man and you have a product or service, and you sell it using affiliate marketing networks that hates genuine Nigerian customers.
Then you are losing my patronage and the patronage of many other legit Nigerian customers.
And trust me, that is a lot of money left on the ground. (150 million people or a tenth of that is not a small market)

How Some Legit Nigerians Buy Stuff Online

Last 3 months, I tried to order confessions of a lazy marketer from Chris Rempel.
He only sells from ClickBank so I could not order it.
So I had to beg a friend living in the US to buy the product for me and send it to me by e-mail.
Now, that means if I ever want to buy anything from ClickBank or other networks not accepting legit Nigerians customers, then I will have to pay that friend (or anyone willing to help me) the equivalent sum of that product so he could order it for me.
But there are many problems with asking someone to buy stuff for you.

1. What about upgrades.
2. What about support?
3. What about customer service?
4. What about other things that I should get from buying a product or service?
5. What of recurring payments?

The problem with buying stuff using a friend is endless and is it not something I would want to do.

So How should I Pay for These Products and Services

In the next few months, I will be taking my online business very seriously. I will be investing in my knowledge, products and services. And will be (if possible) paying for them with my prepaid Visa card.
My plan was to buy

1.The Socrates theme (by the way: this should have been an affiliate link but I cant for this same reason)

I intend to start building niche sites with this WordPress theme. But buying this products is  proving difficult already.

2.Domain names from Netfirms

I sent them an email and the confirmed that they receive any Visa card without bias. Good for their business.

3.Hosting

Hostgator confirmed that they would need a scanned identity card and scanned copy of the debit card used to make the order before I can proceed.
I have no problem with this because it is fair enough and I am legit .I will do just that.

4.Email Autoresponder

I will be using MailChimp services to build my list and as my Autoresponder. I don’t think I will have any problem with paying for their services although I have not sent any email to confirm this.

3.Market Samurai

(This is a keyword research software that will do 95% of the job of research, seo, picking products etc for me) it is a good investment for those who want to succeed online). I decided to buy it after I read Pat flynn review of the product.
But they don’t sell to Nigerians because it is only sold on clickbank.com.

What Some Companies Are Doing About Doing Business With Nigerians

Some wise companies are accepting Nigerian customers paying with prepaid Visa and MasterCard debit cards.
Some world class companies like Hostgator do so but add checks to make sure that only legit Nigerian customer are allowed in their business. This is Very, very fine by me.
Other companies should do same.
Some companies like ClickBank and other networks hating on legit Nigerian customers don’t even bother.
These companies are making bad business decisions and are losing money.
Rejecting thousands of sales from legit Nigerians, or an emerging e-market like Nigeria, is a bad business decision.
But there are many ways to make this work for you and your company.
There are many:

Ways To Receive Money And Do Business With Legit Nigerians Customers And Businesses

If you want to do business with many legit Nigerians, you can:

1. Accept Nigerians Visa/MasterCard prepaid cards

It is that simple.
Nigerian banks now issue legit prepaid cards to their customers so there are no reasons to keep rejecting them.
Now I know that most businesses use affiliate networks to sell their products and services and these affiliate networks are the ones that decide who pays for goods and services.
These networks should start accepting Nigerian prepaid Visa and MasterCard. These cards are legit.

2.Use Checks

I will be frank with you. Ones these networks and people start receiving legit Nigerian customers, the bad guys will come out blazing. In other words, the crooks will try to game the system even more.
This is when you need to act like Hostgator.
They Use checks.
Ask for identity cards; ask for a scanned copy of the card used for the transaction. Ask for anything that would help identify genuine customers from scammers.
Frankly, I don’t really mind if you charge me for going through the stress of verifying me as long as I will get the product or service I paid for.
This will ensure that you are dealing with genuine Nigerian businesses, customers and individuals.

3.Use Offline Means

If you have problem with using any of the above means, you can still use offline means to receive payments from Nigerians.
Western Union transfer and MoneyGram are services that help deliver money instantly from one country to another.
You can ask a legit Nigerian customer to send money to you for a product or service using this method. This method maybe cumbersome and may defeat the aim of running a true online business but is better than losing those customers.
The funny thing is, this method will put legit Nigerians in the position of being easily scammed by foreigners .

4.Use Networks Accepting Nigerians

There are few networks that accept Nigerian prepaid Visa and MasterCard. www.e-junkie.com and www.plimus.com are affiliate marketing networks that seem to accept Nigerian customers (I have not bought anything from any of them yet so I am not so certain).
There are many more networks that accept Nigerians customers so check them out.

Summary And Conclusion

This is the summary of the points opined in this article:

1. Not all Nigerians are scammers
2. Nigerians can now pay for products and services using their prepaid visa and MasterCard issued by Nigerian banks
3. Businesses not accepting genuine Nigerian debit cards and customers are making a big mistake and are losing money
4. The Nigerian e-market is still a young and emerging market and companies who accept Nigerians will gain from it
5. Use checks if you want to start receiving Nigerian customers
6. You can use offline means like Western Union and MoneyGram to receive money from Nigerian customers.

Finally, I have a request.
Joel Comm, I love to buy your Socrates Theme .I love to also buy the Market Samurai too. But the problem is ClickBank hates legit Nigerian customers even with legit debit cards.
How can I pay for your products?
Thank you