The Company Affairs Fee’s new compliance directive for Level of Sale (PoS) operators has triggered sharp divisions amongst stakeholders in Nigeria’s cellular cash sector, setting the stage for a regulatory showdown that might reshape the nation’s agent-banking panorama.
Final week, the CAC introduced that every one PoS operators should receive CAC registration earlier than January 1, 2026, warning that unregistered terminals can be seized and operators shut down.
The Fee stated the transfer is important to curb the rising variety of unregistered brokers, a development it described as harmful to the monetary system and a violation of each the Firms and Allied Issues Act (CAMA) 2020 and CBN’s agent-banking pointers.
“This reckless observe, usually enabled by some fintech firms, places Nigeria’s monetary system and residents’ investments in danger,” the CAC stated, including that safety businesses will implement nationwide compliance and fintechs discovered enabling non-compliant operators will probably be positioned on a watchlist.
Nevertheless, the directive has drawn blended reactions. Whereas one of many sector’s commerce teams, Affiliation of Digital Cost and PoS Operators of Nigeria (ADPPON), helps the plan, albeit with situations, the Affiliation of Cellular Cash and Bank Brokers in Nigeria (AMMBAN) has strongly rejected the transfer, accusing the CAC of exceeding its mandate and threatening monetary inclusion.
AMMBAN kicks towards ‘a number of registration’
Talking with Nairametrics, AMMBAN’s Nationwide President, Fasasi Sharafadeen, stated the directive is pointless, out of scope, and doubtlessly unconstitutional.
In keeping with him, PoS operators already endure probably the most in depth onboarding and verification necessities amongst casual companies.
“Each POS agent is effectively registered together with his or her respective monetary establishment, and the machine is concurrently registered with the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System. No different enterprise has such layers of profiling,” he stated.
Sharafadeen questioned the CAC’s justification that the mandate is required to forestall fraud. He argued that a number of registered firms below the CAC have been concerned in fraud with out CAC documentation mitigating the issue.
He added that safety points throughout the PoS business are already being tackled by established frameworks led by the CBN, DSS, Police, EFCC, and business associations.
“The truth is, there’s a joint job drive sanctioned by the Inspector General of Police, presently sharing intelligence on varied fraudulent practices below my management,” he famous, insisting that the CAC ought to concentrate on enhancing its registration portal and the excessive price of enterprise closures in Nigeria.
- He additional argued that the directive contradicts CBN’s personal pointers on agent banking. Citing CAMA 2020 and CBN regulatory provisions, he stated solely non-individual brokers, equivalent to enterprise names and enterprises, are mandated to register with the CAC, whereas people working below private names are exempt.
- Sharafadeen warned that until the CAC withdraws its risk, AMMBAN could return to courtroom to implement what it describes as the elemental rights of particular person brokers.
ADPPON backs CAC’s intent
In distinction, the Affiliation of Digital Cost and POS Operators of Nigeria (ADPPON) expressed assist for the federal authorities’s try to sanitize the PoS ecosystem.
Its Nationwide President, Paul Okafor, in a press release issued to Nairametrics, stated the surge in fraud, kidnapping, cash-outs, and illicit flows justifies a structured cleanup.
- In keeping with him, business knowledge introduced to the Nationwide Meeting throughout a current public listening to reveals that financial-sector fraud jumped from N17.67 billion in 2023 to N52.26 billion in 2024, with PoS operators more and more focused.
- Okafor stated the affiliation has repeatedly raised issues about these dangers and helps measures that strengthen accountability.
- However ADPPON warned that CAC can not succeed by way of unilateral directives. Previous enforcement failures, Okafor stated, stemmed from the shortage of a coordinated, multi-agency method involving the CBN, Police, fintechs, and operators.
The affiliation referred to as for the creation of a multi-agency job drive to collectively develop a harmonized compliance timeline, a nationwide operator-verification framework, sensitization programmes, and an implementation roadmap that protects livelihoods whereas enhancing safety.
“Thousands and thousands of Nigerians depend on POS providers every day. Sanitizing the ecosystem should go hand-in-hand with defending small companies that energy monetary inclusion,” ADPPON acknowledged.
Backstory
In Might final 12 months, the CAC introduced that PoS brokers of main fintechs in Nigeria, together with OPay, Palmpay, and Moniepoint, amongst others, had been given a deadline of July 7, 2024 to register their enterprise.
- The Registrar-Common of the CAC, Hussaini Magaji, who introduced this, stated this was the settlement with the PoS operators after a gathering in Abuja.
- In keeping with him, the registration can also be in keeping with the authorized necessities and the directives of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
- With many PoS operators complaining about difficulties in getting their registration finished on the Fee’s portal, CAC later prolonged the deadline to September 5, 2024.
- In keeping with the Fee on the time, any operator that failed to fulfill the brand new deadline would face prosecution and danger dropping the enterprise.
- Nevertheless, the brand new deadline issued over a 12 months after the earlier deadline indicated clearly that many PoS operators within the nation are nonetheless unregistered.
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