The House of Representatives has called on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to put in place stringent measures to regulate the Point of Sale (POS) business Operations in Nigeria.
Moving the motion at the plenary on Thursday, Hon. Jimoh Olajide said the POS is where customers make payments for products or services rendered.
He said due to many factors, 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.
Olajide said, “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 lawmaker expressed worry that POS merchants in Nigeria are not only licensed by Commercial Banks, but that other Private Companies are currently in the business of giving POS for business purposes, thus, making the business to be more porous and ambiguous.
Olajide argued that at the moment, no financial regulatory bodies in Nigeria can precisely ascertain the total number of POS machines and their Operators in the country.
He recalled that on December 21, 2021, a national daily 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.
Olajide expressed worry 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. ”
The House urged, “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.”
It also mandated its Committee on Banking and Currency to organise stakeholders meeting for the purpose of tackling the menace of the Operation of POS in Nigeria.
