The Central Bank of Nigeria has vowed to crack down on Point of Sale owners who have become payment agents in order to take advantage of the general public as the currency redesign policy continues to cause confusion throughout the nation.
The apex bank declared that it would conduct sting operations across the nation this week to arrest and prosecute such unaccredited payment agents, describing them as fifth columnists whose actions constituted economic sabotage.
The sharp practices were discovered after reviews of the policy’s implementation, according to Mr. Joseph Omayuku, Director of the Governor’s Department at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), who made these remarks while briefing journalists in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, on Monday evening.
In addition to accepting online payments, some business operators, such as gas stations and supermarkets, he claimed that these PoS operators also sell Naira notes for Naira notes to customers.
“Further reviews have shown that it does seem as though there are fifth columnists operating in this system, and these fifth columnists, as it appears, are anyone who has access to the PoS,” Omayuku said. A number of them have now started the regrettable practice of becoming payment agents.
“So you discover that not only are there petrol stations everywhere, but also that their agents or PoS operators next to them are there who you will go to, sell you money, and then you take that money to go and buy gasoline.
“From this week, there will be very sting operations around the country. Because this (selling of naira) is the incentive. The incentive is that they can sell our currency to us, which is not supposed to be. You cannot be selling naira to us.”
He said the CBN also frowned on the exorbitant commissions on transactions that payment agents collect from customers as against the approved charges, describing their activities as fraudulent.
Omayuku further said, “The operational arrangement for payment agents is that they take a commission for transaction and this commission is not more than N100 or N200 for transaction of up to N10,000. But we have heard of cases where people are being charged N1,000 or N2,000. This is certainly fraudulent; this is rogue operation.
“The management of the CBN and the leaders of the country do not subscribe to any logic that will allow people to operate like this. So, the security agencies will be very active this week, going forward.”
He warned those engaged in illegal practices to turn a new leaf and advised members of the public to report perpetrators by contacting the CBN Contact Centre on 07002255226; Telephone Ext: 711025 – 7; contactcbn@cbn.gov.ng and its social media handles.
The CBN official also debunked claims that the existing online platforms were not effective to support large volume of economic activities, stressing that the challenges associated with the online system “are not as bad as to warrant rejection of transfer payments.”
