The Central Bank of Nigeria has ordered banks, fintechs and licensed payment operators to install GPS tracking on all Point of Sale (PoS) terminals.

This was communicated in a circular dated August 25, signed by Rakiya Yusuf, Director of the Payments System Supervision Department, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

According to the circular, all PoS devices must now have native geo-location services enabled with double-frequency GPS receivers for reliable tracking.

Also, operators are required to register each terminal with a payment terminal service aggregator and provide accurate coordinates of the merchant or agent’s business location.

The circular reads:

"Geo-location data must be captured at transaction initiation and included in the message payload as a mandatory reporting field: Terminals not directly routed to a PTSA are not permitted to transact.

“All existing terminals and newly registered terminals must ensure strict adherence always to approved MSC code per sector.

"All existing terminals must be geo-tagged within 60 days of this circular; new terminals going forward must be geo-tagged before certification and activation."

Also, existing machines must be geo-tagged within 60 days of the directive, while new devices must be tagged before certification and activation.

Why the new directives?

The measures follow an increase in PoS use across Nigeria, where agents have become central to the cash economy as banks reduce branch networks and cash machines frequently run dry.

But complaints of fraud involving PoS agents have risen, and security officials say kidnappers sometimes use nearby agents to collect ransom payments to avoid detection.

More directives to payment companies The CBN also directed payment operators to adopt ISO 20022, a global standard for transaction messages developed by SWIFT, by October 31, 2025, Punch reports.

CBN added that all PoS devices must run on Android version 10 or higher to integrate with the National Central Switch, which will host the software for geolocation monitoring and geofencing.

The bank said the standard would improve transaction data quality and enhance security for both domestic and cross-border payments.

The circular continues:

"All payment transaction messages exchanged domestically or internationally must be formatted in ISO 20022 in line with CBN and SWIFT specifications.

“All Institutions shall ensure complete and accurate population of mandatory data elements, including payer/payee identifiers, merchant/agent identifiers, and transaction metadata.

“All in-scope institutions must complete migration activities and be fully compliant not later than October 31, 2025.”

Full supervision will begin on October 20, 2025.