Today, global payment gateway PayPal is announcing its launch in Egypt, where it has enabled services for consumers.

Enabling consumer accounts means that online shoppers in Egypt will now have the ability to purchase goods from around the world, thanks to PayPal’s payment system. The benefits of using PayPal primarily involve security; it protects consumers from having to share credit card details with vendors, and also allows customers to receive a refund if online retailers don’t deliver goods, or don’t deliver the right goods, explains Elias Ghanem, General Manager of PayPal in the Middle East and North Africa.

Expansion into Egypt is a natural next step for the payment company. “PayPal is constantly looking for new and exciting markets to offer its service and Egypt fits this criteria due to its large population, high online penetration and citizens’ love of shopping,” said Ghanem. Those who are interested can learn more at http://www.paypal.com/eg/ahlan.

PayPal also plans to open merchant accounts in Egypt, which would allow online retailers to enable payment via PayPal on their e-commerce stores. While today, PayPal is only live for consumers, this is the first step in fully enabling the platform in the Nile Country.

“Enabling Egyptians to shop online with PayPal is a continuation of our commitment to rolling out PayPal services in the MENA region, in line with our corporate strategy to be truly global and allow everyone to shop online with added safety, security and convenience,” Ghanem added.

The goal is to serve Egypt’s rapidly growing e-commerce market. Online purchases in Egypt are expected to more than triple by 2016, with Egyptians spending as much as $447.3 million on e-commerce.

Egyptians also enjoy shopping on mobile. Smartphone penetration has grown to 26% last year, and an estimated 82% of smartphone users in Egypt have researched a product or service on their phone, while 41% have used their smartphone to make a purchase. (See more in our overview of the Egyptian e-commerce sector).

Elias Ghanem joined us yesterday to answer a few questions about PayPal as well as its partnership with Aramex’s Shop and Ship service; watch his video above to hear more about the service’s expansion into Egypt and future plans.

Exclusively, Elias will be joining us live today at 3pm Cairo/ 4pm Beirut/ 5pm Dubai to answer your questions live on our Facebook page. Please submit your questions here in the comments, and join us at 4pm to ask questions live on our post on Facebook.