CBN Orders Service Providers to Start Tracking Point-of-Sale Transactions
All Point of Sale (PoS) transactions must now be tracked by payment service providers per instructions from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The central bank gave all payment service providers 30 days to establish regular relations with payment terminal service aggregators (PTSAs) in a circular on connectivity to PTSAs.
The circular was signed by Oladimeji Taiwo, the Director of Payments System Management at CBN, on September 11, 2024.
“To ease concerns about processing all Point of Sale (PoS) transactions through a single aggregator, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) gave Unified Payment Services Limited (UPSL) a second PTSA licence on April 19, 2024,” according to the circular.
The CBN then announced, “From now on, acquirers must route all transactions from Point-of-Sale (POS) terminals at merchant and agent locations, whether they are physical or electronic POS terminals, through any CBN-licensed Payment Terminal Service Aggregator (PTSA).”
“PTSAs must send PoS transactions only to Processors certified by the relevant Payment Scheme, nominated by the Acquirer, and licensed by CBN.”
The ability for acquirers to choose their preferred processor(s) and PTSA is made possible by the integration of all licensed processors with both PTSAs. 4. All PTSPs are instructed by the acquirer to set up their point-of-sale devices and apps so that transactions can be routed through any PTSA.
“All PTSPs must submit monthly returns to the CBN, detailing the number of merchants and agents they manage, as well as the PTSA services used to route the corresponding transactions.”
Monthly returns describing all transactions handled through their platforms are needed to be submitted to the CBN by each PTSA.
Please ensure that the returns referenced in items (5) and (6) above are sent to the Director. Seven (7) days after the end of each month is the deadline for returns to be received by the Payments System Management Department.
As a result, within 30 days of this Circular’s date, you are required to begin regularisation with the PTSAs and provide written notice to the CBN to certify compliance.
The proper punishments will be imposed in the event that you do not comply with these standards, so please do so.