Currently, Ghana is blacklisted by PayPal, making it impossible for people resident in Ghana to make or receive payments on the PayPal platform. With many online merchants using PayPal, sometimes exclusively, to receive payments for products and services, Ghana's 24 million people, like many more in other blacklisted countries, are unable to transact business.

At the same time, many Ghanaian entrepreneurs with innovative products and services, that would offer real value to buyers around the world and contribute to economic development locally, are cut off from much of the world where PayPal is a major platform for receiving payments. This has to change. PayPal can and should be a force for supporting entrepreneurs who seek a means to engage in legitimate business and are currently unable to reach potential customers around the world. This is anti-business.

Similarly, there are lots of social enterprises and charities that are working to improve lives and communities in Ghana and around Africa that are unable to accept donations via PayPal. All over world, online donations have powered a variety of social innovations and charity projects. Being blacklisted means many innovative social enterprises and charities in Ghana are deprived access to potential donors. This isn't progressive.

Interestingly, the business potential for PayPal in enabling transactions in Ghana is significant. Whether from Ghanaians who will be paying for goods and services online, or Ghanaian merchants who will now be able to sell products and services online or Ghanaians abroad who will make remittances to family and loved ones back home, transaction fees will accrue to PayPal.

The activities of a few suspicious individuals cannot be justification for denying many legitimate individuals, businesses and charities in Ghana the opportunity of carrying out transactions via PayPal. It is possible to keep PayPal safe and secure, as is the case in other parts of the world, without stifling economic activity.