PayPal acquired Xoom a money transfer service to help the company reach to new emerging markets. Already, people in Nigeria and South Africa can quickly, cheaply and safely get from PayPal via Xoom.
Xoom has also announced that it will soon roll out to two more African countries, Ghana and Kenya and 13 more countries worldwide bringing its total number of countries its serves to 53.
List of Countries currently supported by Xoom
Once Xoom rolls out in Kenya, users will be able to transfer money from their PayPal accounts directly to their mobile wallets (M-Pesa accounts). Users in Ghana and Nigeria will also get additional services like cash pick-up points and mobile reload options.
John Kunze, the VP at Xoom said, “Remittances are a significant contributor to the economic development of many countries. In markets such as Nepal, remittances represent as much as 25% of the country’s GDP.
When Xoom enters a market, we have a history of using technology to help bring remittances costs down, improve customer service and increase the speed and convenience of money transfers. This geographic expansion speaks volumes to the appetite people across the world have for better remittance options.”
PayPal’s move to acquire Xoom as a vehicle to help it infiltrate the emerging markets is a step in the right direction towards expanding financial inclusion of the developing world. It also reduces the cost of remittances for the diaspora sending money to their loved ones back home in the developing countries. It also eases the cost of doing businesses for entrepreneurs doing various online jobs for offshore companies based in the developed economies that use PayPal as the mode of payment.
With PayPal’s reputation in secure money transfer and Xoom’s ability to reach out to the developing economies. Users might have just found a reprieve from the exorbitant fee charged by alternative avenues of remittances back to developing world.