Reps urge CBN to regulate POS business, operators

The House of Representatives has urged the Central Bank of Nigeria to, “in the public interest,” introduce stringent regulations and guidelines, including sanctions, on the Point of Sale business operations in Nigeria.

Also, the House mandated its Committee on Banking and Currency to organise a stakeholders’ meeting for the purpose of “tackling the menace” of POS operations in the country.

The resolutions were sequel to the unanimous adoption of the motion moved by a member of the House, Jimoh Olajide, titled, ‘Urgent Need to Regulate the Point of Sale Business Operations in Nigeria.’

Moving the motion, Olajide noted that the POS is where customers make payments for products or services rendered, but due to many factors, “the 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.”

He 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.”

Olajide said, “The House is worried that the POS merchants in Nigeria are not only licensed by commercial banks, other private companies are currently in the business of giving out POS for business purposes, thus making the business to be more porous and ambiguous.

“The House is concerned that presently, no financial regulatory bodies in Nigeria can precisely ascertain the total number of POS machines and their operators in the country.”

Leave A Comment