More Nigerians Embrace PoS as Transactions Rise

The popularity of point of sale (PoS) terminal has continued to soar as more Nigerians have started using the computerized replacement for a cash register to pay for goods and services, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek has learnt.

Figures at the weekend showed volume up 46 percent over the past eight months to 200, 000 transactions carried out at 150,000 PoS as at August 31 this year

This is against 141,000 transactions achieved at 120,000 PoS deployed nationwide as at January 14.

Nigeria CommunicationsWeek gathered that unlike the volume transactions that recorded 46 percent, value of transactions within the period under review only managed some 13 percent increase.

The value of transactions in the period under review in January was N3 billion while in the last week of August the value stood at N3.4 billion.

There have been concerted efforts by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other stakeholders in the industry to increase and strengthen the use of PoS as a means of payment. It would be recalled that the apex bank recently commenced the implementation of limiting third party cheque to N150, 000.

More so, terminal depolyers also known as Payments Terminal Service Providers (PTSP) are now adopting CDMA SIM cards for network connectivity to address the unreliable GSM networks.’

PoS terminals are provided with connectivity through GSM subscriber identity module (SIM).

The terminal uses the GPRS service of the network to communicate with the network infrastructure of the terminal deployer in this case CBN licensed Payments Terminal Service Providers (PTSP) and National Central Switch as Payments Terminal Service Aggregator (PTSA) for the industry.

Nigeria CommunicationsWeek also learnt that Payments Terminal Service Aggregator for the industry which is Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), in an effort to sanitize the e-payment space has directed banks who are owners of PoS terminals deployed at merchant location to deactivate all terminals that are not use for transactions.

These are terminals that are registered and deployed but have been idle for a long period of time.

This harmonization according to NIBSS will help in providing accurate number of functional PoS as well as encourage owners to encourage the merchants at whose location such terminals are deployed to start using them.

The process of deploying a point of sale terminal requires the PTSPs to first register such terminal with Payments Terminal Service Aggregator for the industry which is Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) before such terminal will be deployed.

The essence of registration of terminal before deployment in the present arrangement is to ensure that the terminal commences transaction immediately it is deployed.