The Corporate Affairs Commission has set a two-month deadline for Point of Sale operators in the country to register their agents, merchants and individuals, latest by July 7, 2024.

The Registrar-General/Chief Executive Officer, CAC, Hussaini Magaji, SAN, met with some fintech companies, also known as PoS, on Monday in Abuja, during which the agreement was reached.

Magaji said the measure aims at safeguarding the businesses of fintech customers and strengthening the economy, the commission stated via its X handle, tweeting as @cacnigeria1.

Magaji stated that the move complies with “Section 863, Subsection 1 of the Companies and Allied Matters Act, CAMA 2020 as well as the 2013 Central Bank of Nigeria’s guidelines on agent banking.”

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The tweet partly read, “Hussaini Magaji, therefore, said that the timeline for the registration, which will expire on July 7, 2024, was not targeted at any groups or individuals but genuinely aimed at protecting businesses.

“Several speakers from the fintech industry pledged to collaborate with the Commission to ensure hitch-free implementation of the directive.

“Some of them, however, stressed the need for adequate and collective sensitisation to ensure that the exercise achieved the desired results.”

In his remarks, Tokoni Peter, the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on ICT Development and Innovation, “pledged to ensure the smooth facilitation of the process in line with the Renewed Hope Initiative of the present administration.”

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Present at the meeting were representatives of fintech companies, including Opay, Momba, Palm Pay, Moniepoint, Paystack, among others.

Aside from being an avenue for job creation, PoS operators play a significant role in financial transactions nationwide.

The move to compel the registration of the fintech companies with the CAC has come at a much-needed time as the companies have also been a key part of fraudulent transactions.

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In its Annual Fraud Landscape (January to December 2023) report, the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System has said that financial institutions lost about N17.67 billion to fraud in 2023.

It was also reported that the Web and PoS channels were the most exploited payment channels by fraudsters in 2023.

The count of Web Fraud decreased by 38 per cent and ATM fraud recorded a 64 per cent reduction from 2022 to 2023.