CBN says regulated POS prices with “Super Agents” remain

The Central Bank of Nigeria reacted to the plans by POS agents to increase the costs of doing business in Nigeria, stating that regulated prices with the Super Agents remain and that it is their responsibility to enforce.

The apex bank added that it has also informed Super Agents that failure to act within their responsibility would result in sanctions.

This was disclosed by the CBN Acting Governor, Folashodun Shonubi, after the July 2023 MPC meeting on Tuesday.

Super Agents

Shonubi reacting to questions about increased POS Charges by POS operators, revealed that the CBN’s model requires it not to deal with the operators but licensed Super Agents, he said:

“ The Model the CBN runs is that we do not deal directly with POs operators, we have companies we license, which are super agents, who have Pos,

“We have regulated prices with super agents and it’s their responsibility to enforce them, we have informed the super agents of the operators, and where we find agents responsible for actions not in line with their license, we sanction super agents.

Naira redesign

Shonubi also noted that the CBN goes through cycles, citing that the Naira redesign is one of them, he added:

“We had to put out old notes and as they are coming in and they are being processed as not issuable, and we are replacing them as new notes.

“We have an optimal level of currency level, more of what is being done is a replacement rather than just putting more out there when the banks for notes, we provide, we would slowly and overtime replace old notes with new notes and that would be out of practice, and we would see it slowly morph from old to new.

In case you missed it

The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) said that it is not against individual PoS operators increasing their prices as they deem fit to make a profit from the business.  

The Chief Executive Officer of the Commission, Mr. Babatunde Irukera, stated this in a statement released on Monday, saying the FCCPC would not allow any attempt to create a PoS business cartel that fixes. 

While frowning at the Association of Mobile Money and Bank Agents in Nigeria (AMMBAN) disregard for its earlier warning over the plan to fix prices, Irukera said the Commission was concerned about statements emanating from the executives of the association.

He, however, noted that the Commission would continue to use the advocacy approach while it would not hesitate to impose penalties when necessary.