A TWO-MONTH lifeline has been handed Point of Sales (PoS) operators in the country by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) for them to register with it.
Specifically, PoS operators now have till September 5, 2024 to register with CAC or risk clampdown.
In May 2024, the CAC gave the operators till July 7, 2024, to register or face sanctions. The need to register was premised on the need to check the rising fraud cases associated largely with PoS businesses in the country.
But due to calls and pressures on the CAC from several quarters across the country, deadline extension was announced.
CAC, on its X handle, at the weekend, said: “The Corporate Affairs Commission wishes to notify fintech operators, also known as Point of Sale (POS) operators, that the initial deadline of July 7, 2024 given for the registration of sole agents, super agents and other agents has been extended for a period of 60 days beginning from July 7, 2024 to the September 5, 2024.
“This is to give sufficient time to the operators, particularly those in remote areas who might have encountered network challenges, to register and continue with their businesses. Operators, who fail or refuse to register at the end of the extended deadline, run the risk of losing such businesses and prosecution for aiding and abetting criminal activities.”
Since the deadline was announced in May, some of the PoS operators have been complaining about difficulties in getting their registration done on the commission’s portal. This prompted the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, to appeal to the commission to simplify the process.
The governor appealed to the commission, on Thursday, during a courtesy call on him by the Registrar-General of CAC, Hussaini Magaji, at Alausa, Ikeja.
Sanwo-Olu, who was represented by his Deputy, Obafemi Hamzat, suggested that the CAC could adopt a model similar to the state tax card, which provided a database for the government to manage infrastructure needs without burdening businesses.
While expressing the state government’s willingness to collaborate with the CAC to ensure seamless registration of businesses in the state, he emphasised the need for more sensitisation to correct the perception that registering with the CAC was difficult.
The Association of Mobile Money and Bank Agents in Nigeria (AMMBAN) claimed that the move by CAC would hinder the growth of the agent banking sub-sector, whose worth was put at N13 trillion.
AMMBAN, while responding to earlier deadline of July 7 by CAC , had stated the forceful registration would impact on members negatively.
The National President, Fasasi Atanda, noted that registration was not a means of fighting fraud, as a lot of registered companies are into all forms of fraud.
According to him, fraud in agency banking is not about CAC registration, but about collective action of the stakeholders, which AMMBAN is working with all the security agencies.
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