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Cash-less policy: PoS transactions rise to N24bn

By BusinessNews Staff on May 18, 2014

The Central Bank of Nigeria said that the Point-of-Sale transactions rose from N99.6m in January 2012 to N24bn as of April 2014.

It noted the PoS deployment had also increased from 5,000 in 2010 to 153,167 as of April 2014.

The Deputy Governor, Operations, CBN, Dr. Kingsley Moghalu, who made the disclosure at a seminar on the cash-less policy in Lagos, said the CBN’s cash-lite policy had recorded a huge success since its inception in January 2012.

The seminar organised by Wilson & Weizmann Associates Limited was entitled, ‘Cash-less Nigeria: progress, issues and prospects.’

Moghalu, who was represented by the Principal Manager, Shared Services, CBN, Mr. Aaron Yaguma, also noted that the number of PoS transactions recorded had jumped from 3,197 in January 2012 to 1,624,564 as of April, 2014.

He said, “Fourteen mobile money operators out of the 20 licensed operators have gone commercial and account for 28,090 transactions valued at N596,173,990 in April, 2014. More payment terminal service providers have been licensed to facilitate the provision of PoS for merchants who have indicated interest to their banks.”

The CBN deputy governor said the figures were expected to grow geometrically with the increasing adoption of the cash-lite policy by merchants and other participants within the payment space.

Moghalu said the central bank exceeded its 40,000 PoS terminals target for 2012 and was in good stead to reach 440,000 PoS terminals next year.

In view of this, he said there was need to continue the public sensitisation and education in order to enlighten the consumers on the convenience and security of electronic channels.

He said, “Providing financial products and services to the lower income bracket represents a large business opportunity for the financial institutions. Providers of financial products and services will develop innovative products and services that better suit the needs of the low income unbanked and under-banked population.”

“Cash-less banking will reduce the cost of banking by dropping cash handling costs. Fifteen fully licensed MPOs with thousands of merchants located throughout rural and urban parts of the country are contributing to the successful implementation of the cash-less policy.”

The CBN official said the legal framework needed to support the policy was already before the National Assembly and would fortify the implementation once it was approved.

However, the security of electronic channels has ranked top on stakeholders’ concerns. As a result, Moghalu said the Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum had been inaugurated to ensure that the level of awareness on vulnerability existing on the e-channels was raised.

He said, “Exchange of fraud information among institutions has also been encouraged with the view that as a system, we are only as strong as our weakest link.

“We have embarked on a journey to reposition our financial system to address current challenges faced and transform the country into a world-class economy. In this journey, we require the cooperation of all parties so that we can bequeath a safer, more efficient and effective payment system.

[Punch]

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