As for me and many of my people here, we are doing this business just to feed our families and survive from the N100 and N200 we charge from transactions. But I don’t know if some of us are using our accounts to commit fraud, which is possible. I am only speaking for myself

“I have heard many times that all these big big people use PoS to pass money they stole and all but me they have not used mine before and I won’t allow it,” he said.

On the deadline given by CBN for operators to geo-tag their payment platforms, Muhktar said he doesn’t know what it means, adding that the Central Bank of Nigeria needs to do more in enlightening them.

Also speaking, Chioma Eze, another operator affirmed that there is every possibility PoS operators are being used for fraud, but shielded herself from the act

“I am sure that some of the operators are involved but as for me and few of my friends in the business are not. What I just know is that PoS operators are just doing the business to survive

“They usually accuse us of taking all the cash in the Bank but some of them don’t know that we usually buy that cash from fuel attendants and other places not necessary form the Bank. Sometimes we don’t even has cash at our disposal while other times the cash is very small,” she said

On the deadline for geo-tagging by the CBN, she said she can’t really say what that means, but “If it will affect our business, then we will comply.”

Similarly, Moses Edeh, who operates a point for sale terminal told our reporter that the business is gradually becoming unprofitable as many people hardly rely on cash again.

“Majority of people are going cashless so the business is not booming like before. Maybe that’s why if they say some people are using it for illicit transfer then I will believe because the market is not flowing like before, but as for me, I only come to do my business and go home, “he said

He also said that he is unaware of the CBN deadline, adding that more Sensitization needs to be done in that regard.

One of the operators, who spoke with our correspondent on condition of anonymity, said the development has had both positive and negative impacts on those in the business.

“Yes, some operators help to send suspicious huge amounts of money without raising an alarm because of the financial benefits. In some cases, security agencies eventually arrest such operators,” he said.

Speaking on the matter, the President of the Association of Professional Point of Sales Agents (KAPPSA) in Kwara State, Mr. Ridwan Opakunle, told Daily Trust that fraud in the POS business has become a long-standing challenge.

“A registered member of our association is traceable and will never engage in fraud. But the business is so saturated that many fraudsters have infiltrated it. That is why we have consistently advocated partnership with security agencies to sanitize and filter the system,” he said.

Opakunle explained that some unregistered operators illegally configure POS terminals to harvest card details and subsequently defraud unsuspecting customers. “There are fraudsters in the business and they even defraud genuine operators,” he added.

On the criteria for membership, the president said applicants must provide two civil servants as guarantors, as well as details of their residence and business location. Each member is tagged to a zone, with the zonal chairman monitoring their activities.

According to him, the association shares its database with security agencies to aid tracking.

“We have visited the Kwara State House of Assembly and other relevant stakeholders. We are not against regulation, in fact, we are advocating for it. Out of the entire operators, only about 55 percent are registered with us and traceable. The remaining ones are those defrauding society. That is why we submitted a proposal to the House over five months ago, requesting that certain criteria must be met before banks can issue POS terminals. Unfortunately, our request is still awaiting the governor’s approval,” he said.

Opakunle disclosed that the association’s electronic database in Kwara State contains about 10,000 members, though some are yet to complete their registration. He said the group had also engaged local governments in the state to explore partnership opportunities in the absence of stronger backing from security agencies.

On reports of POS agents caught with huge cash, he said the association had sought clarification from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

“We were clearly told that no POS agent has the right to keep more than N5 million in custody. We are also required to conduct due diligence, such as collecting the details and pictures of customers withdrawing more than N100,000. Any agent keeping between N10 million and N20 million is not a bona fide operator,” he added.

Though in Kano state PoS operators have no standard association, individual practitioners revealed that in recent time some operators are having it big because they can issue huge cash to customers without much stress.

According to one of the operators Mallam Abdullahi Musa, PoS operators usually do transactions of millions of Naira without being to the bank. “You see we used to have an association but it is no longer functioning. However, people find it much easier and computable to do business with us than with the banks due to some banks policies. We source our cash in filling stations and other businesses that usually deal with cash and anyone willing to withdraw a huge amount of money is prepared to do it with us, because we have cash in excess,” he said.

Another operator told our reporter that he can’t say they members are not being used in illicit transactions but he revealed that they are not in a position to know. “How do people expect us to know that the people collecting or sending money are engaged in illicit dealing? As far as we are concerned we are doing our business in accordance with the laid rules and regulations,” he stated.

Another operator, Fidelix Dickson revealed that it is possible that some of the dealings are illegal because one can never tell. He added that people no longer patronize even the ATMs, because the banks seem to be happier that the PoS operators are doing their jobs for them.

Lagos gets task force

In an interview with Stephen Adedayo, the auditor, Association of Mobile Money and Banks Agents in Nigeria, (AMMBAN), Lagos State, stressed that the association has set up a task force to check illicit activities.

“We have been training our agents from time to time and we did a symposium some time ago that has to do with enhancing customers’ awareness about fraud.

“We also have this engagement with all the fintechs and banks. We have a tight relationship with them and we also recommend to banks and fintechs on how to sanitize all these agents so they can be protected in terms of fraud.

“There are some who are not members of AMMBAN doing these transactions that they are not supposed to. They are doing it illegally. We have to identify confirmed members that are recognized and allowed, permitted by the government through the organization to do this business,” he said.

He called on the federal government to strengthen the infrastructure for the identification and verification process, saying it would help to curb fraud.

“There are some NEPA bills used by fintechs or banks to validate the presence, location of a customer. But some NEPA bills are not even correct? They are not even valid.

“They are not even in the database of Nigeria. And the addresses are used as a basis to onboard a customer?

“So if the government can even validate addressing, that will go a very long way in curbing fraud. It’s one of the challenges we are having as an association, that even the recommended address verification requirements are not even valid. So, how do we want to track the fraudster? So, that is the government part,” he said.

A PoS agent, Felix Iyim commended the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for introducing the initiative for all PoS terminals to be geo-tagged within 60 days, identifying it as part of measures to curb fraud and strengthen oversight of digital payments.

Rise in PoS fraud

Reports indicated that Nigerians carried out record-breaking transactions worth N223.27 trillion via Point-of-Sale (POS) terminals in 2024.

According to the CBN data, POS transaction value more than doubled from N110.35 trillion in 2023 to over N223 trillion in 2024.

This was largely driven by a nationwide shift away from Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) and an expanding agency banking network.

But as PoS transactions surged, unscrupulous elements also cashed in on the surge. New figures from the Fraud and Forgeries Report for Q1 2024 by the Financial Institutions Training Centre (FITC) show that POS fraud cases jumped by 31.12 per cent, rising from 2,683 incidents in Q4 2023 to 3,518 cases in Q1 2024 alone.

These POS-related frauds accounted for 30.67 per cent of the 11,472 total fraud cases reported during the period. Experts say this makes POS transactions the biggest contributor to fraud in Nigeria’s financial system.

Also, fraud committed through computers, mobile devices, and agent banking platforms led the charts in both Q1 and Q2 2024, reflecting the growing vulnerabilities in Nigeria’s digital payment system.

October 31 deadline by CBN

On Tuesday, Daily Trust reports that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) issued a fresh directive mandating all participants in the country’s payment ecosystem to complete migration to the ISO 20022 messaging standard and implement mandatory geo-tagging of payment terminals by October 31, 2025.

In the circular published on its official website on Tuesday, the apex bank reminded Deposit Money Banks (DMBs), Microfinance Banks (MFBs), Mobile Money Operators (MMOs), Switching and Processing Companies, Payment Terminal Service Providers (PTSPs), Payment Solution Service Providers (PSSPs), Super Agents, and other licensed operators that ISO 20022 is now the global benchmark for payments messaging.

The circular was signed by Dr Rakiya O. Yusuf, Director of the Payments System Supervision Department at the CBN and dated August 25, 2025.

According to the document, the move aligns with SWIFT’s global migration timeline and is intended to standardise quality data across Nigeria’s financial system.

“All payment transaction messages exchanged domestically or internationally must be formatted in ISO 20022 in line with CBN and SWIFT specifications,” the circular noted.

Beyond messaging standards, the circular also introduces mandatory geo-tagging of payment terminals to enhance oversight and curb fraud in the electronic payments space.

All existing and newly deployed payment terminals are required to have native geolocation services enabled, supported by double-frequency GPS receivers. Terminals must also be registered with a Payment Terminal Service Aggregator (PTSA) with precise latitude and longitude coordinates tied to merchant business locations.

Also, the CBN mandated that Android OS version 10 is now the minimum software requirement for all terminals to ensure compatibility with the National Central Switch’s geolocation monitoring system.

Terminals not directly routed through a PTSA will not be permitted to transact, while geo-location data is to be captured at the point of transaction and included in the message payload as a mandatory reporting field.

What you should know

ISO 20022 is a global language for financial messaging. It replaces older systems with a modern, data-rich format that allows banks and payment providers to exchange information more clearly and accurately. Instead of short and limited transaction messages, ISO 20022 makes it possible to include more details such as payer and payee identifiers, purpose codes, and full remittance information.

This helps reduce errors, improves fraud detection, and ensures regulators can monitor transactions more effectively.

The standard also makes cross-border payments faster and more reliable, aligning Nigeria’s financial system with international best practices.

Geo-tagging means linking payment terminals like PoS machines to their exact location using GPS coordinates. For the CBN, this is a way to track where terminals are deployed, reduce fraud, and prevent devices from being moved to unauthorized locations.

It also helps regulators identify areas with poor payment coverage and guide policies for financial inclusion. For businesses and customers, geo-tagging provides greater confidence that transactions are being carried out at legitimate and verified locations.

Together, ISO 20022 and geo-tagging are designed to strengthen Nigeria’s payment infrastructure, improve transparency, and support safer and faster transactions. (Daily Trust)