George Washington is a very handsome bobo
One of the things you look forward to as a tech/creative person in Nigeria is getting paid in Dollars (USD). So imagine how happy I was when I finally got my first gig from abroad. Considering that I didn’t have to put a lot of effort into getting this made it even more pleasing.
We finalized on rates and working, procedure. The client was excited to pay after the first week of ‘test’, I was excited to start singing ‘Mo n na dollar lowo lowo’ but Meffy had other plans. Virtually every single way to receive money directly into your bank account from abroad is blocked — I thought it was a joke.
WorldRemit and many others which seemed to be the most viable required a Domiciliary account so it was at first a no-go area.
Flutterwave recently partnered with PayPal meaning that the client could now use PayPal to pay but there was a catch, you need a registered business to set that option, I could use web boss but we needed TIN and that form honestly looked intimidating — I still haven’t filled it. The test payment came in but it wasn’t moving from ledger to account balance because registration was incomplete for the reason aforementioned.
Flutterwave payment link and Barter weren’t working out either so I needed to circle back to the Domiciliary account option.
After being sent outside of the bank because of a nose mask, waiting for over 30minutes — the requirements for opening a domiciliary account includes getting two referees with a current account and it must not be their salary accounts. I didn’t know when I said: why is everything so difficult in this country? Cos I was frustrated!
At this point, I was spending more time thinking and figuring out how to get paid than writing codes. Spoke with the client and he decided to try Western Union which was picking up the cash.
No yawa. After going round 3 banks due to queue cos there is still work to be done. I finally found one and the process was painless. As the cashier was processing the test payment; he said: One dollar?! Yes, one dollar alaye — am I Meffy who blocked all the easy ways to receive money in this country ni?
Due to his frustration, he overlooked all the mistakes I made in filling the form and just gave me the money. To be honest, I wasn’t quite prepared for the reaction but my heart leapt! Here I was holding George Washington in my palms; up close — the Bobo is very handsome sha.
After further inquiries. It appears I will need to find someone to change/convert the money for me — meaning even this cash pick-up cannot work for me.
Plus it will never make sense to me why you will allow dollars into the country without a convenient/official means to change it to naira.
PS: I started writing this article while waiting for my turn in the bank and finished it up outside the bank before leaving for ‘work’.
-April 16, 2021
