POS Operators Cut Charges As Cash Availability Improves

Normal banking activities resumed this week as cash further permeated the banking system with queues and crowds that had persisted since February this year disappearing. This is as banking agents, popularly known as Point of Sale (POS) agents cut their charges.

In the height of the cash scarcity, some POS agents had been charging as high as 40 per cent for cash withdrawals. Leadership can report that banks are dispensing cash to their customers both over the counter and through their Automated Teller Machines (ATMs).

While a few banks are giving a maximum of N30, 000 per customer, some are paying as much as N150, 000 to customers over the counter and as much as N50, 000 at the ATMs. This had led to reduced queues at the banking halls as well as the ATMs.

Thus, with the increased availability of cash at the banking halls and at ATMs, POS agents who had increased the amount they charge for cash withdrawal had been forced to crash their charges as less people demanded for the cash.

POS agents who had been charging N400 for every N1, 000 withdrawal had as at yesterday begun charging N100 for every N1, 000 withdrawn while some were charging N200 for every N5, 000 withdrawn.

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A POS agent who declined to identify himself said he had charged as much as 30 per cent in the height of the cash crunch because he also bought the cash. According to him he used to buy the cash form motorists and filling stations.

He however noted that since there is cash at the banks and there are fewer people demanding for cash, he has since last week been charging 10 per cent for withdrawals. The POS agent noted that for most of February and March this year, he had not done any deposit transaction, adding that he has begun to see customers making cash deposits.

To ease the hardship that Nigerians had experienced in the face of the cash crunch, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has released cash to commercial banks in the country. The CBN acting Director of, Corporate Communications Department, Dr. Isa AbdulMumin, had at the weekend confirmed the evacuation of funds from the apex bank for onward distribution to banks.

According to him, a substantial amount of money, in various denominations, had been received by the commercial banks for onward circulation to their respective customers.