CBN Issues New Location Rule for PoS Operators, Mandates Terminal Tracking
- The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has issued a new location rule for PoS operators nationwide
- A new circular by the apex bank restricts operators within a 10-metre radius of their registered business
- The bank has also mandated banks, terminal issuers and mobile operators to geo-tag their terminals, a move aimed at curbing fraud
Legit.ng’s Pascal Oparada has reported on tech, energy, stocks, investment and the economy for over a decade.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has issued a comprehensive raft of directives, significantly impacting Point-of-Sale (PoS) operators nationwide.
The new regulations confine operators only within a 10-metre radius of their registered business address.
Source: Getty Images
CBN mandates GPS tagging on PoS machines
The move aims at tightening regulatory control and curbing fraud.
According to the new circular, signed by CBN’s director of the payment systems supervision department, all existing terminals, which are estimated at six million nationwide, must be geo-tagged using GPS and integrated with ISO 20022 messaging standards within 60 days.
The apex bank said it will commence compliance checks on October 20, 2025.
The new directive requires all payment transactions to migrate to the globally recognised ISO 20022 messaging standard, which aligns with Nigeria’s digital payments infrastructure with international best practices.
New rule restricts PoS operators
The new geofencing rule will restrict the mobility of PoS operators, eliminating the use of cloned ghost terminals and boosting the reliability of payment activities.
According to a BusinessDay report, the new rule mandates operators such as Moniepoint, Opay, Palmpay, and other banks to incur additional costs in acquiring GPS-enabled devices or retrofitting older terminals and upgrading software and processes for the ISO 20022 compatibility ordered by the apex bank.
Smaller players and roaming operators who rely on mobility to serve diverse communities may be severely affected.
Source: Getty Images
Meeting compliance while maintaining service continuity will pose a significant challenge to several PoS agents.
Experts hail CBN’s directive
Experts have praised the new CBN rule as revolutionary, aiming at curbing fraud and improving the traceability of operators.
“Apart from fraud, there is an explosion in ransom money in Nigeria. Data has shown that PoS operators enable kidnappers to access their ransom money in banks,” Osas Igho, a financial analyst, said.
“This move will boost security and improve the cashless policy of the Nigerian government,” Igho said.
The explosion of PoS agents nationwide has enhanced financial inclusion and created several nano jobs for Nigerians.
However, analysts say the move calls for more regulatory tightening and control.
PoS terminal transaction increases
Legit.ng earlier reported that the value of transactions over Point of Sales (PoS) terminals in Nigeria surged to N18 trillion in 2024, hitting an all-time yearly record.
This was based on data obtained from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS).
Driven by a prolonged cash shortage at ATMs and the aggressive expansion of PoS deployments by fintech companies, the 2024 record marked a 69% increase compared to the N10.7 trillion value of PoS transactions in 2023.
Source: Legit.ng
