Razaq Bamidele
The motion moved by a member, House of Representatives, Hon. Jimoh Abdulraheem Olajide representing Lagos Mainland Federal constituency on the urgent need to regulate the Point of Sale (POS) business operations in Nigeria, and seconded by Hon. Muraina Ajibola has been voted on and adopted by the House.
Following this motion, the House of Representatives has urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to, in the public interest, introduce stringent Regulations and Guidelines including sanctions on the POS business operations in Nigeria to curb some criminal activities of some of the operators.
The House also mandated the 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.
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Earlier, the House had noted that the Point of Sale System (POS) is where customers make payments for products or services rendered but due to many factors, the system 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.
Also noted was that 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 from the claw of fraudulent operators.
The lawmakers worried that the POS merchants in Nigeria are not only licensed by Commercial Banks, other Private Companies are also currently in the business of giving out POS for business purposes thus making the business to be more porous and ambiguous.
The House were concerned that presently, no financial regulatory bodies in Nigeria can precisely ascertain the total number of POS Machines and their Operators in the country.
The House also expressed concern that on December 21, 2021, the Punch Newspaper reported an allegation by the residents of Aniocha South Local Government Area of Delta State alleging that staff of Aniocha branches of two banks deliberately sabotaged the Banks Automated Teller Machines (ATM) on non-availability of cash, thus leaving customers with no choice than to patronize the alleged Banks Staff owned POS Centres around the Banks.
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Aware 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.
Worried that some of the POS operators fraudulently charge exorbitant amounts of money from their customers’ bank accounts, while some retain vital information from customer’s ATM cards in the course of making the financial transactions.