Four Point Of Sale, POS, operators have been arrested in Makurdi by a combined team of officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, the Independence Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission, ICPC, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC for extorting their customers.
The team, led by the CBN Director Financial Markets, Dr. Angela-Sere Ejembi carried out the sting operation in parts of the town visiting several POS operators in the Wurukum, North Bank, Wadata, High Level and Gboko Road areas of the town, among others, to monitor their activities.
The team focused on ensuring that the operators carried out their businesses within the approved threshold by not charging excessively for services rendered and also make cash available to prospective customers.
It would be recalled that POS operators in Makurdi before now had been charging one percent for services rendered but following the Naira swap and cashless policy of the CBN, most POS operators in the state now charge between 10 to 30 percent for services rendered.
Residents have ceaselessly lamented that the development had compounded their woes as they were being forced to besiege any available ATM machine for cash.
Some of the arrested operators who were nabbed in the North Bank area of the town lamented that they were forced to dispense cash to customers at rates higher than the CBN approved threshold because of the difficulty they encountered while sourcing the fund.
One of the female operators who did not identify herself said she spent money moving from one ATM point to the other in order to get the cash and “sometimes I also buy from traders in the market in order to meet the demand of customers.”
Meanwhile the arrested operators were handed over the EFCC for questioning and possible prosecution
