PayPal, one of the fastest, easiest and most popular online payment gateways in the world, is not available in Bangladesh. There has been a repeated demand from our freelancing community to bring PayPal to Bangladesh for a long time. State Minister for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Zunaid Ahmed Palak has also shown commitment to facilitating its arrival. The US company, however, has not yet introduced its service in the country. Freelancing or online outsourcing plays an important role in our economy's growth. Apart from lifting the economy, it is opening new doors of opportunity for youths to be financially independent. The number of young freelancers is increasing day by day in Bangladesh. According to the ICT minister, currently, we have more than 650,000 freelancers in the country, and their total annual income is about USD 1 billion. The unavailability of PayPal, however, is creating a fundamental impediment to optimising the potential of our freelancers.
PayPal is a banking channel which acts as an intermediary for payments between two parties. After signing up on the platform, customers are supposed to link their bank account, credit card or debit card to PayPal. Once the procedure is complete, the customers pay or receive money, with the option of keeping the amount in their PayPal account or transferring it to their bank account. Most of our freelancers deal with foreign clients through platforms or marketplaces like Upwork. For all top marketplaces, PayPal is the most accepted payment method. It is beneficial for both the clients and the workers. The clients can make the payment swiftly online and the workers can receive it instantly. In the US, PayPal is so popular that Bangladeshis often lose out opportunities to their competitors just because they do not have a PayPal account. Without PayPal, freelancers often resort to more expensive, sluggish and inconvenient methods such as bank-to-bank transfers. Most of these platforms charge a fee between five per cent and 30 per cent. Having access to PayPal can allow freelancers to ask their customers to send money via this platform, which costs them only 2.5 per cent.
PayPal allows sending the invoice directly to the customer. Customers also trust PayPal because it offers an easy complaint mechanism. They know they can file a complaint with PayPal easily if the service provider fails to deliver. In absence of PayPal service, freelancers in Bangladesh have to rely on bank transfer and sometimes illegal channels. Since the bank transfer system is complex and slow. The freelancers often use illegal channels as the payment method, which is depriving the government of a considerable amount of revenue every year. PayPal is currently available in 203 countries in the world. Even neighbouring countries including India, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri-Lanka have been able to give PayPal access to their freelancers and move their economy forward. But Bangladeshi freelancers are somewhat falling behind. The government has taken many initiatives to stimulate the freelancing sector. But there are still shortcomings regarding the payment system. So, time has come for us to seriously work on PayPal's launch in Bangladesh so that our freelancers can work globally and repatriate their hard-earned money.
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