The Federal House of Representatives has called on the Central Bank of Nigeria to regulate the operations of Point of Sale (POS) business in the country.
House Member, Jimoh Olajide, who brought the motion to the floor of the house hinted at some irregularities, ranging from some bank staff shutting down automated teller machines (ATM) in order to force customers to patronise POS businesses around banks owned bank staff.
Jimoh’s motion which was titled ‘Urgent Need to Regulate the Point of Sale Business Operations in Nigeria,’ was welcomed by the House and after deliberations, the Committee on Banking and Currency was asked to organise a stakeholders’ meeting for the purpose of “tackling the menace” of POS operations in the country.
Jimoh said, “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.”
“We shall welcome constructive inputs and explore all meaningful partnership channels and opportunities in order to achieve our goal of ensuring that the Dependable Workman and Defender of the Benue Valley, Dr. Samuel Ortom, continues to shine the light and fight for us.”
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.”
