The House of Representatives has mandated its Committee on Banking and Currency to organize stakeholders meeting for the purpose of tackling the menace of the Operation of the Point of Sale System (POS) in Nigeria.
While urging the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to, in the public interest, introduce stringent regulations and guidelines including sanctions on the Point of Sale (POS) business operations in Nigeria.
The resolutions followed the consideration of a motion on the “Urgent Need to Regulate the Point of Sale (POS) Business Operations in Nigeria”, moved by Hon. Jimoh Abdulraheem Olajide.
Presenting the motion, Hon. Olajide noted that the Point of Sale System (POS) is where customers make payments for products or services rendered but due to many factors, the Point of Sale (POS) has been turned into a lucrative business in Nigeria and has provided jobs for millions of unemployed Nigerians that see it as a good alternative to white-collar jobs in the country.
According to him, “While many Nigerians are making legal money from this lucrative business, some are using it for
fraudulent acts to create fake credit alerts to defraud innocent customers hence the need for government intervention to rescue the rising business sector in the country.”
“The Point of Sale (POS) merchants in Nigeria are not only licensed by Commercial Banks, other Private Companies are currently in the business of giving out Point of Sale (POS) for business purposes thus making the business to be more porous and ambiguous.
“Presently, no financial regulatory bodies in Nigeria can precisely ascertain the total number of Point of Sale (POS) Machines and their Operators in the country.
“On 21 December 2021, the Punch Newspaper reported an allegation by the residents of Aniocha South Local Government Area of Delta State alleging that the Aniocha branch’s Union Bank and First Bank Staff deliberately sabotaged the Banks Automated Teller Machines (ATM) on non-availability of cash, thus leaving customers with no choice to patronize the alleged Banks Staff owned POS Centres around the
Banks”.
While adopting the motion, the House stated that, in exercising the powers conferred on the Central Bank by the Central Bank of Nigeria Act 2007 (as amended) to issue guidelines, rules and standards for financial services to the public and to ensure good conduct and management of the financial system, the Central Bank of Nigeria had released ATM guidelines and regulations which include among other things, that:
“any institution operating an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) shall file an updated list of such ATMs, including the detailed location of their addresses with the Banking and Payments System Department of the Central Bank of Nigeria for compliance and monitoring.”
