Cash-less: CBN, telecoms firms meet over poor communication

In a bid to breathe new life into the floundering cash-less policy, the Central Bank of Nigeria and major telecommunication companies have met on the issues relating to poor network connection.
Our correspondent gathered from a member of the Bankers’ Committee on Friday that the meeting dwelt on the need to create dedicated communication links for the Point of Sale terminal channel.
It was gathered that high downtime of PoS terminals, one of the key e-Payment channels expected to drive the cash-less scheme, was threatening the initiative.
The source, who preferred not to be named, revealed that more of the deployed and registered PoS terminals were suffering from high rate of downtime, thereby making merchants to rely on cash payment.
The source said, “Poor downtime appears to be frustrating the efforts of the CBN. Most of the complaints we get now is that the PoS machines are not working. The apex bank has issued a circular that all PoS machines must have two SIMs.
“In addition to that, the terminals should also accept all cards irrespective of the issuer. There should be nothing like exclusivity of cards where some cards will not work on some terminals.”
According to the source, the PoS terminal will, henceforth, accept all cards, including Visa, MasterCard and Verve.
The Managing Director, Kenob-Lyn Nigeria Limited, Mr. Kenneth Nwachineke, said poor infrastructure could stall the cash-less policy.
Nwachineke, who is a consultant on excess bank charge recovery, said, “The initiative by the CBN is a wonderful one but if issues like poor communication are not properly addressed, there may be problem with people embracing the policy.”
He urged the CBN to address the issue of who would bear the 1.25 per cent cost of transaction, saying that some merchants were passing the charges to customers.

“The CBN has said that the 1.25 per cent cost should not be passed to customers but in most cases, you see people being told to pay for using their ATM cards on the PoS machines. It is not about telling people to move to e-payment only, the campaign should enlighten people on their rights,” Nwachineke added.