CBN directs payment service providers to route all PoS transactions through authorised PTSA

The Central Bank of Nigeria has mandated all Payment Service Providers to route all transactions from point-of-sale terminals at merchant and agent locations, physical or electronic through an authorized Payment Terminal Service Aggregator.

The apex bank disclosed on Thursday in a circular signed by Oladimeji Yisa Taiwo on behalf of CBN’s director Payments System Management Department.

This comes as CBN issued a 30-day deadline for service providers to comply with enhanced routing guidelines for Point of Sale transactions.

According to the bank, this move aims to strengthen the monitoring of electronic transactions across Nigeria and decentralize PoS transaction routing, addressing concerns about the centralization of such transactions under a single entity.

The circular read, “…The CBN hereby directs acquirers to route all transactions from PoS terminals at merchant and agent locations, whether on physical or electronic PoS terminals, through any CBN-licensed Payment Terminal Service Aggregator.”

“PTSAs are required to send PoS transactions to only processors certified by the relevant Payment Scheme, nominated by the Acquirer, and licensed by the CBN.”

The development comes as the deadline issued by the Corporate Affairs Commission for PoS operators to formularize their businesses expired last week, September 2024.

Latest data from Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc showed that PoS terminals accounted for 26.37 percent of Nigeria’s fraud incidents in 2023.

Recall that CBN in 2011 granted PTSA license to NIBSS to enable the tracking of electronic transactions in Nigeria.