The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has given a two-month extension to point of sales (PoS) operators to register with it. PoS operators now have till September 5, 2024, to register with CAC or risk clampdown.
Recall that in May 2024, the CAC had given PoS operators in the country 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, a deadline extension was announced. CAC at the weekend on its X handle, said: “The Corporate Affairs Commission wishes to notify Fintech Operators also known as Point of Sales (POS) Operators that the initial deadline of July 7, 2024, given for the registration of sole Agents, Super Agents, and Agents has been extended for sixty days beginning from July 7, 2024, to September 5, 2024.
“This is to give sufficient time to Operators particularly those in remote areas who might have encountered network challenges to so 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, Dr 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 emphasized the need for more sensitization to correct the perception that registering with the CAC was difficult.
Already, the Association of Mobile Money and Bank Agents in Nigeria (AMMBAN) had 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 the earlier deadline of July 7 by CAC, had stated the forceful registration would impact members negatively.
The National President, Fasasi Atanda, who said, noted that registration was not a means of fighting fraud, saying there are lots of registered companies today that are into all forms of fraud.
According to him, fraud in agency banking is not about CAC registration but about the collective action of the stakeholders, which AMMBAN is currently working with all the security agencies.
Fasasi said CAC cannot regulate what it doesn’t understand and is part of.
Calling on CAC to concentrate on the about 4.9 million registered businesses with it, where almost 50 per cent failed every five years, he said the commission’s priority should be how to ensure the establishment and viability of those businesses, not about PoS operations.
According to him, it is not just about PoS, it is an industry, a global agenda on financial inclusion, “so, you are trying to attack and destroy the streams of financial inclusion in Nigeria. This is offending lots of stakeholders. CAC needs to understand how the industry operates.
“Most of thesefintechs today, don’t have branches but leverage on sub-agents to deliver services. They are like branches of the banks. So, if it is not correct for a branch of GTB at Egbeda to go and register with the CAC, it is also not correct to ask a sub-agent of MoniePoint or Opay to go and register.”
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