‘Accept our Naira,’ Nigerians lament challenges with paying Google in dollars

Nigerians have taken to social media to lament the difficulties of having to pay for some Google services in United States dollars.

Nigerian digital strategist, Ogunbowale Olugbenga, spearheaded a campaign against the rejection of the Nigerian currency in a post on his Facebook page on Monday.

He urged the American tech company to consider accepting payments from Nigerians in Naira.

In an open letter addressed to Google’s Country Director for Nigeria and West Africa, Juliet Ehimuan Chiazor, the digital strategist said the development has led to extortion from digital banks which make business out of exchanging currency for people and businesses.

Olugbenga, who is the co-founder of Grant Master, a Nigerian grant content-as-a-service platform, noted that acceptance of naira from Nigerian users would reduce the time wasted on the engagement of 3rd party for exchange of currency.

Read letter below:

“Dear Google,

“In Nigeria, we pay for our YouTube Premium subscription in Naira, with our Naira cards. However, we pay for our Google Workspace in dollars. This is stressful because we have to either:

“Get a dollar card from a bank, then change naira to the dollar at a Bureau De Change, then take dollars to the bank, then pay for Google Workspace.

“OR

“Get a virtual dollar card from a neo bank, then change naira to the dollar at an outrageously high exchange rate, then pay for Google Workspace.

“Nigerians would love to pay for Google Workspace in Naira.

“Thank you.

“CC: Juliet Ehimuan Chiazor.

In their reaction to the post, many tech leaders noted that the time to integrate a naira option was long overdue.

The Co-founder, Vateeca World, Oladipupo Abiodun Idris, who acknowledged the bottleneck with having to pay Google, said the development would prevent him from making subscriptions for the month.

“This is long overdue. I can’t even renew my Google one sub for this month,” he said.

On his part, a Nigeria-based content developer, Sesan Felix Oluwayemi, urged the Federal Government to wade into the matter.

He noted that there was no better option than the acceptance of the Naira.

Oluwayemi said: “This is one of the policies the government should look into strongly on this tech giant. We have to pay with our currency. Period.”

Nigeria had nearly 84 million internet users with 98.22 percent using various Google products and services as of this year, according to data released by a Dublin-based web traffic analysis institution.

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