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By Adewale Sanyaolu
It was a frustrating Easter celebration for shoppers and fun seekers in most parts of Lagos as Point of Sale (PoS) operators mopped up cash in various Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) to serve their teeming customers.
The development forced funseekers to patronise PoS merchants as ATMs were not dispensing cash.
Findings by Daily Sun during the Easter break which began last Friday to Monday (yesterday) revealed that most of the ATM machines within the Lagos metropolis were out of cash.
Frustrated residents who spoke to Daily Sun in separate interviews fingered the activities of Point of Sale (PoS) operators as being responsible for the scarcity of cash at most ATM points.
According to the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS), the number of PoS machines deployed by merchants and individuals across Nigeria rose to 1.8 million in March 2023.
The figure according to NIBSS represents a 75 per cent increase year on year compared with the number of deployed terminals in the same period last year, which was 1.04 million.
The March 2023 figure indicated that 776 089 new PoS terminals were deployed in the last 12 months. This is, however, still lower than the total registered terminals.
PoS operators offer their services at a premium charging N200 on every N5,000 dispensed, depending on the location and could go higher in some highbrow areas.
A cross section of security men who spoke to Daily Sun at most of the banks visited on Allen Avenue, Adeniyi Jones, Surulere and Lagos Island lamented that the activities of PoS has becoming a nightmare. They disclosed that most of the operators come with multiple bank card to make withdrawals, thereby denying genuine bank customers the opportunity to make withdrawals within the range of N5,000 to N10,000.
‘‘I can authoritatively tell you that most of these PoS operators are the ones causing untold hardship for Nigerians. Some of them come with as much as 15 to 20 different bank card to make multiple withdrawals .At the end of their transaction; they end up empting the vault to the disappointment of other customers.
A second generation bank security official on Allen Avenue told Daily Sun that he doesn’t allow a customer to make withdrawals more than twice. ‘‘Once I observe that you are taking so much time on the ATM, I will politely walk up to you and tell you that you cannot withdraw in multiples. Some will quietly walk away while some will turn into a shouting match,’’.
A PoS operator in Ijeshatedo, Surulere, Lagos told Daily Sun in confidence that due to the long Easter holiday, most of them had exhausted the cash they got from the bank on Thursday and were only left with the option of mopping up cash from ATMs.
The PoS operators are said to obtain much of their cash through insider deals with unscrupulous bank officials who are unable to resist the lure of cash inducements. It is further alleged that in some cases, the bank officials own the PoS operations and operate them by proxy, ensuring from the inside that they never run dry of cash.
