PayPal Australia is to roll out its Certified Developer and Partner Program to encourage e-commerce activity in the region.

As a result, PayPal is to offer its online payment services to developers and services providers outside the retail sector in order to open the e-commerce channel for sectors including not-for-profits, education and local government. This initiative is in line with PayPal’s plans to achieve a two-fold increase in its payments volume within the next three years and enter new markets.

PayPal is already involved in discussions with local government bodies and North Sydney Council is to become the first such institution to integrate PayPal as an online payment method to pay rates. Non-profit organisations, such as charities, sporting clubs, schools, universities and local government have selected PayPal for donations, fundraising, to collect tuition fees and for bill payments.

According to the 2008 Not-for-Profit ebusiness report released by Australian organisation ConnectingUp, 81 percent of not-for-profits in Australia have opened a website, but only 27 percent of them use it to sell goods and services online while 22 percent provide fundraising services online.

Registering almost 5 million account holders in Australia, PayPal has been implemented by 30 of the top 50 local e-commerce platforms so far.