The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said it would not hesitate to withdraw the licenses of Point of Sale (POS) agents, who are taking advantage of the naira swap to inflate the charges of cash withdrawal from their POS machines.
With the recent development on cash availability, POS agents across the country are collecting between N1,000, N1,500 and N2,000 charges for every N5,000 and N10,000 withdrawn by customers and N300 charges for every N1,000.
The Director, CBN Risk Management department, Blaise Ijebor, disclosed this on Tuesday while speaking with journalists on the efforts made by CBN and state government on ensuring the availability of cash in circulation.
According to Ijebor, the approved charge for every N5,000 is N100 and anything done contrary to the approved charges by the agents due to the current cash crisis is tantamount to punishing their fellow citizens.
He said, they are aware that POS agents are engaging in all sorts of sharp practices by charging customers up to 30 percent before giving them money and the situation is been monitored, as they are on patrol with the EFCC to salvage the matter. He revealed that any POS agent found culpable will have his or her license withdrawn.
The director revealed that they have disbursed close to N1 billion to banks between Sunday and Tuesday so that the people can have access to cash.
There has been a serious bank notes scarcity in Nigeria leading to a slowdown in economic and social activities in an economy that is heavily cash dependent.
