NIGERIA’s Point-of-Sale (PoS) industry has grown at a staggering pace. From fewer than 150,000 registered terminals in 2017, to more than 3.7 million devices as of mid-2025, according to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS). On the surface, this looks like a resounding success story. Millions of Nigerians now rely on PoS agents for everyday transactions, from withdrawing cash in rural communities with no banks to paying utility bills in crowded city streets. In June 2025 alone, PoS transactions hit ₦1.15 trillion, highlighting just how central this channel has become to the financial system. But anyone who has used a PoS in this country knows the truth: growth has not meant reliability. Failed transactions are the daily reality.

NIBSS data shows over 40 million PoS transactions failed in 2024. Customers are debited without value and wait days, sometimes weeks, for reversals. Fraud is rampant. The Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum estimates PoS scams drained ₦5 billion last year, with cloned cards, fake terminals, and ghost agents multiplying in plain sight. And let us not forget the shameless profiteering during the 2023 naira redesign, when desperate Nigerians were forced to pay agents as much as ₦500 just to withdraw small amounts of cash.

The CBN has clearly had enough, and rightly so. Geo-tagging will finally slam the door on ghost agents. Every terminal must now be tied to precise GPS coordinates with a geofence of just 10 meters. No more roaming terminals popping up miles away from their registered addresses. If a device registered in Kano suddenly starts processing transactions in Ibadan, it will be flagged. The clampdown will also help curb criminal exploitation of PoS channels. Security agencies have long raised concerns about the use of PoS terminals for ransom payments in kidnapping cases and other illicit activities, where anonymous or roaming terminals made tracing difficult.

By geo-tagging every device and enforcing stricter data standards, the CBN is effectively closing a loophole that criminals have abused for years. This will strengthen financial intelligence gathering and make it harder for illicit funds to circulate undetected. The migration to the ISO 20022 messaging standard is equally crucial. With richer and standardized data on every transaction such as payer and payee details, merchant identifiers, and transaction metadata, reversals will be faster, fraud will be easier to track, and disputes less frequent. For the millions of Nigerians who have lost trust in cashless channels, this will be a welcome change.

And then there is infrastructure. Too many PoS devices in use today are outdated, slow, and insecure. By mandating Android 10 or higher and integration with the National Central Switch software, the CBN is forcing an industry-wide upgrade. This is long overdue. An economy that moves trillions through these channels cannot afford to run on obsolete devices. The reforms will also expose pricing abuses. By tying transactions to specific locations, regulators will know where agents are flouting fee caps. The days when operators could exploit crises unchecked, as they did during the cash scarcity of 2023, may finally be over. Of course, none of this will come cheap. A modern terminal costs between ₦60,000 and ₦100,000. For rural agents, that is a heavy burden. If the CBN is serious about reform, it must also be serious about support. Financing schemes, phased enforcement, or subsidies will be essential. Otherwise, we risk deepening exclusion in exactly the places that PoS was meant to serve.

But make no mistake: the CBN is right to be tough. The PoS sector cannot continue as it is. Nigerians deserve a payments system they can trust, not one that collapses under pressure, swallows their money, or leaves them at the mercy of fraudsters. The circular is a hard reset, and it will be painful. Some operators will fall away, and others will complain loudly. But if Nigeria wants to build a modern, reliable, digital economy, business as usual is no longer an option. The CBN has taken the first step. The industry must now follow, or risk being left behind.

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