Kenneth AFOR, LAGOS
Since the commencement of Point Of Sales (POS) services in the country under the initiative of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) financial inclusion policy in 2012, it has created job opportunities for the teeming unemployed youths in the country.
The policy was aimed to reach 80 per cent of Nigerian adults with formal financial services and eight years after inception, according to the newly published data from EFInA (Enhancing Financial Innovation & Access) 64 per cent of Nigerian adults were financially included by the end of 2020.
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It has been observed that the POS business is one of the fastest growing businesses in the country’s financial sector due to the multitude of outlets springing up on a daily basis in residential areas, market places, commercial and business districts, bus stops, motor parks etc.
The business has saved time and energy for most commercial bank customers who are not used to joining long queues in the banking halls to withdraw money, send money to loved ones or carry out other forms of transactions such as payments of utility bills.
With the proliferation of the business, those in rural areas have unrestricted access to financial services.
Neptune Prime took to the streets in some parts of Lagos to hear from some of POS operators/agents on their experiences of the business.
One of the operators, Emmanuel Chinoso, a graduate, residing in Satellite Town, Oriade Local Council Development Area (LCDA) in Amuwo-odofin Local Government Area (LGA) Lagos state said he started the business about a year ago due to his inability to get a white collar job. According to him, having heard about the POS business, he carried out a research on some of the FinTech companies who provide the services, and then picked interest.
He said, “Based on what the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said that one can make money from the business so I took interest in it and carried out my own research on the business and some of the fintech operators (Money Point, Paga, OPay etc), and after my research I decided to start with Money Point.”
“The POS business is a good means of making money if the person is more calculative and he knows what he is doing.
“The business is more or less like you being a cashier in the bank, once you’ve closed for the day it is important you take stock of the transactions you’ve carried out for that day to know if your account is balanced. If you discovered that the account is not balance it means you’re running at a loss. It is advisable you take stock of the day’s transactions, don’t wait till next week before you take stock – you do it every day,” he added.
Every business must have its own challenges and obstacles. Chinoso however revealed some of the challenges one will encounter while on the business.
“Before I started the business the banks told us that if money was transferred to our accounts it becomes a transaction when we’ve received the said amount or seen it on the app.
“Sometimes, you have fraudsters who come to carry out transactions, they will tell you they transfered money to your account, if you’re not smart enough you can fall victim, the best thing to do before you give out cash is to be patient to receive a confirmation on the bank’s app. Don’t rely on alert because most of the times, the SMS alert can be fake you will have to wait and check your mobile app for confirmation.”
Another operator, Abiola Micheal Adesina, at the popular Alakija bus stop along Lagos Badagry expressway started the business in June 2021 after he was sacked at his former place of work at a beer depot. He said as an operator there’s the need to be at alert to avoid making mistakes imputing wrong transaction figures. “There was a transfer I did for someone, he gave me N1,000 to send to his account and I mistakenly sent N10,000. That money cannot be refunded to the sender if the recipient had left,” Adesina said.
On failed transactions due to poor network services Adesina advised, “I chose to work with Money Point because their service is very good. OPay debuts their agents more in terms of amounts per transaction. If there is a failed transaction the service provider (OPay) will not refund the money, they go to the extent of debiting your account without the transactions being successful. So you have to be smart when you choosing a service provider.”
When asked how much can one make in a day, he said, “You can make more than N5,000 in a day, it depends on the location you are.”
Another operator, Amalachukwu Johnson, a university admission seeker at the Ijegun area in Satellite in agreement with Adesina said, “In a day if you can make up to fifty (50) transactions you will smile home with nothing less than N5,000 to N7,000 so, I’d advise those who are unemployed to start the business because it is very profitable. I left my teaching job to start this business and I discovered that my monthly salary while I was teaching cannot be compared to what I make on a daily basis.”
He added that one of the challenges he is facing is having to compete with other operators in the area not to loose his customers to them.
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