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The PoS regulatory policy is akin to that of the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) registration initiative - which required all mobile phone subscribers to register their SIM cards with their respective mobile network operators
On Wednesday, May 8, 2024, the Registrar-General of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Hussaini Ishaq Magaji, announced the compulsory registration of the Point of Sales (PoS) agents and merchants of Fintech Nigeria, to register under the commission to enable the government track kidnappers and the other criminal operators.
The registration for POS operators is still ongoing, it will close by the 7th of July 2024. No matter what business you operate in Nigeria today, you are under the law of Nigeria to ensure your business is registered with the CAC.
The CAC boss, asserted that most criminals now move around with PoS machines, and if registered and documented, when anything happens and the commission is involved the PoS can be traced through its registered number, and the criminals caught."
He said: "Again, with the registration, this group of people can get loans from the bank, knowing the legitimacy of their businesses.
"We assume that in 60 days all POS operators must have registered their businesses.
This must be done in the interest of their interest, again if a business or an individual has been using a POS machine without registration, just know that from the day you acquired that POS you are being charged N200 and every day counts, so the day you come for registration your payment for the machine will be backdated to the day you started using it.
"In most banks presently, there are POS machines which are not registered and not attracting any charges, even though they are in the bank, they should be registered and charges met like any other POS on the street. After the deadline of 60 days without registration, they will be termed as criminals".
However, the PoS regulatory policy is akin to that of the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) registration initiative - which required all mobile phone subscribers to register their SIM cards with their respective mobile network operators - and was designed to capture the identity of mobile phone subscribers for identity and security management.
Owing to the rampant kidnapping and banditry nationwide, the federal government was advised by one of the private sector bodies, specifically, the NACCIMA, under the former National President, Dr.Simon Okolo, to enforce the sim card registrations.
The NACCIMA convinced the government that the compulsory registration of SIM cards nationwide would go a long way to checkmate the activities of kidnappers and fraudsters.
Consequently, the government listened and mandated the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, to carry out a massive campaign across cities and rural areas of the country, despite the challenges.
The registration exercise of old SIM cards was officially concluded by the NCC on June 30, 2013, while that of new SIMs continues.
According to the NCC data,
the number of registered new SIMs grew by 6.98 million from 316.64 million as of December 2022 to 323.62 million as of February 2023, while the number of new active lines in the period only grew by 4.61 million from 222.23 million to 226.84 million in the period under review.
Despite the success, kidnapping and other criminal activities relating to sim cards rather than decreasing, have been on a worrisome increase.
As a result, Nigerians are asking, if the PoS regulatory policy will reduce organised crimes; as a notable quote, says: "Since war and crime begin in the minds of men, it's in the mind that the defence for peace must be constructed."
