- I have 22 POS points, none is functioning – Chairman
BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
Commercial Point of Sale operators in Nigeria under the aegis of the Association of Mobile Money and Bank Agents have said the naira redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria has crippled their business and robbed them of their means of livelihood.
According to them, contrary to claims by Nigerians that they now make huge sales from exorbitant rates some of them reportedly charge through POS transactions, most of them have shut their outlets because of lack of cash to operate with.
The Chairman of the association in Osun State, Ali Akeem Segun, in an interview with our correspondent, accused some merchants of impersonating POS operators and charging above the usual amounts for transactions.
He revealed that the merchants were traders and other business individuals who own POS machines for their customers to pay after buying goods from them, adding that they over-charge their customers even after making their gains from the wares they sell.
According to him, the association which has about 3,000 membership strength, has arrested about two merchants for allegedly taking charges from customers who bought things from them. While disclosing that the cash crunch had made industries, firms and establishments with high cash turnout not to release money for POS agents to disburse to customers, Segun maintained that many POS kiosks had closed down. “We are feeling the hardship and pain. There is a lot of propaganda that PoS agents are now making money but it’s not true. Merchants are the ones over charging people.
We have more than 3,000 POS operators across Osun State and most of us don’t have cash to operate with. Our businesses have been negatively affected and ditto our means of livelihood. These merchants have POS merchant terminals and it’s worrisome that they still charge customers after already making their gains.
People are not meant to pay a merchant charges for purchasing goods from them,” he said. The association’s chairman noted that the cashless policy was a noble initiative but added that it was not properly planned as people were not given proper orientation and awareness on the operations and dynamics of the policy.
He also decried the inability of the CBN to carry POS operators along from the beginning of the policy. “People are now using alternative channels like transfer, e-wallet, and POS terminal.
But part of our observation in the trading market is that most merchants now stand as agents by taking charges from buyers. Sellers (merchants) now ask customers to pay certain charges on commodities they are buying whenever they opt to pay through transfer.
This is absurd. Most of these merchants have refused to release cash to agents to make transactions and are using the cash to trade as agents. Our task force is out to arrest those who flout our ethics,” he stated.
Noting that many communities in Osun State do not have deposit money banks, the chairman said POS agents had been serving in those areas, adding that the woes of the residents had been compounded since the paucity of cash worsened.
He said, “Majority of local government areas in Osun don’t have banks, starting from Ifedayo, to Ila, to Boluwaduro, Boripe, Irepodun, Obokun, Atakunmosa East, Ife South, Ife North, Olaoluwa, Irewole, Ayeedaade and many others.
There is no single bank in Ejigbo local government. Same thing in Ikirun. No commercial bank at all and those who have Microfinance banks are not carried along in this new policy. “We were not factored into the naira swap until four days to the first deadline.
CBN didn’t bring us in as stakeholders, but as tools to reach out to more people. The reason this process is not productive is that we were not involved at the initial stage. We’ve not been getting our cash from banks in the last three years. We used to get money from those who had high turnover of cash like filling stations, industries who make huge sales, supermarkets who have huge cash.
We build the bridge by collecting the cash from them instead of taking it to the bank.” “With this development, I can tell you with all sincerity that CBN’s policy of cash withdrawal limitation has crippled our businesses. There is no special consideration for agents.
The highest that an agent can withdraw a day is N20,000. I have about 22 POS points and none of them is functioning now. Most factories don’t operate anymore. We have gone round and confiscated about 15 to 20 terminals from merchant terminals.
They are spoiling our business and we need to act,” he disclosed. Asked if Nigeria was ripe for cashless policy, Segun said, “Even when I agree that cashless policy has a lot of advantage, I would say we don’t have enough infrastructure for it. Nigerians are not ready for cashless policy.
We have never been ready for anything. The problem we have in Nigeria is this Japa syndrome. Most of the best hands that could manage the softwares have left the country and that’s why you discover that the online banking channels are not working well.” “Government should sensitise people and prepare Nigerians for these other means of transactions before we go full cashless,” he urged.
