Merchants identify roadblocks to PoS business

Merchants making use of point of sale (PoS) terminals for transactions at their locations have reeled factors hindering the use of PoS device as a means of payment and urged actions to address them.

Among the roadblocks identified include; lack of credit backing for PoS transactions by banks; +two days settlement arrangement; placing of burden on customer for technology failure among others.

The merchants disclosed this at PoS innovation Summit organized by Global Accelerex in Lagos.Sarafadeen Fasasi, president, Association of Mobile Money Agents in Nigeria, said that the practice of + two days settlement arrangement for transaction on the PoS is a major challenge in the business of using the device as a means of payment.

“By policy, settlement should be done in one day of the payment, but today that is not obtainable in practice as what we get is + two days. This means that if a merchant gets payment through PoS device today by 10am he will not get value in his account till 6pm tomorrow which means he has lost two days of business. This settlement system slows down business for us merchants as well as does not optimize the benefits of PoS system,” he said.

He also decried lack of investment by some banks in the PoS business where they are reluctant to acquiring additional PoS terminals as well as providing credit backing for transactions over the device.

“Just like as it is with ATM where banks load money to the machine, banks are expected to provide credit backing for transactions over this device, but today very few banks are doing it others are declining,” he added.

Fasasi however, urged banks to invest in PoS for agent networks as a way of achieving PoS magic. According to him, ‘agent networks need informal approach to bring to financial inclusion

Corroborating Fasasi, Mr. Prakash Keswani, managing director, ARTEE industries (SPAR), stated that the system of transferring burden of technological failure in the process of payment through PoS on the customer is worrisome instead of the provider of the device.

“We often face with a situation where transactions did not go through and customers account debited and not reversed immediately expecting the customer to go to their bank and fill one form or the other. In some cases customers insist on going with the goods they purchase,” he explained.

A report from NIBSS made available to Nigeria CommunicationsWeek shows that 51 percent of volume of transactions in 2016 occurred in Lagos with 32.7M, followed by Abuja with 6.8m and Port Harcourt 5.1M.

It further stated that between January and July 2017, only 15,093 terminals were added to the network.