Kenyan Compares PayPal Accounts for Africans and Europeans

Kenyans are having their accounts suspended and money frozen on PayPal as the company increases anti-money laundering checks, with small businesses, artists and freelancers struggling to receive their payments.

Individual sellers, startups, artists and fundraisers who rely on payments from international clients, mostly in the diaspora, have found that their accounts on the platform have been restricted and blocked.

The payment platform now requires clients and account holders to provide contracts and proof of physical residential address and bank statements to restore frozen accounts.

“If all the requirements are not met within 6 months, the accounts are permanently disabled with remaining cash frozen for up to 180 days to take care of chargebacks.” Stated Techweez and Tech-ish.

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Increased Scrutiny and Compliance Challenges for Kenyan Users on International Payment Platforms

Upon account reactivation, incoming payments may be blocked for up to 21 days for screening.

“Kenyan one gets blocked, restricted, frozen over and over to the point that it is almost unusable,” verified Kenyan X user Mokaya posted. “I keep giving them documents and they just raise the bar every time, treating the account like a crime scene. My EU account is flawless, and I am the same person operating both accounts,” he added.

This comes after the Financial Action Task Force added Kenya to the greylist in February 2024, stating that the country was added due to strategic deficiencies in its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing frameworks.

International payment platforms like PayPal have been forced to increase compliance.

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Online Users Pointing the Difference in Customer Experience European Ones

PayPal claimed it screens accounts against government watchlists, flags sudden increased activity, sudden unusual cash inflows and uncharacteristically large payments for an previously dormant account.

“This helps us with anti-money-laundering and anti-fraud purposes.” Stated PayPal.

The problem that affects many Kenyan users is that it is nearly impossible to provide a formal physical address.

“PayPal has got this beautiful system called Anti money laundering. It’s simply a way to freeze any account in Africa for no good reason at all,” DismasWaTabu wrote on X.

According to Techweez PayPal processes 59.9 trillion shillings ($464 billion) of payments a day in the first quarter of 2026.

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Online users are pointing the difference in customer experience Alfie African PayPal customers and European ones. Credits LinkedIn