COMMERCIAL Point-of -Sale (PoS) operators mushrooming around filling stations retail outlets are conniving with some pump attendants to add arbitrary charges to consumers purchasing fuel, The ICIR findings have shown.

While some filling station outlets negotiate with banks to have their own PoS machines which customers can use without incurring charges, others connive with commercial PoS merchants to extort Nigerians through arbitrary charges.

Findings by The ICIR revealed that some filling station retail outlets flagrantly refuse to have their own POS machines for transactions from the bank, while pointing to commercial merchants loitering around the stations.

“I had an experience at AY Shafa filling station in Abuja whereby the pump attendant pointed me to a commercial PoS merchant, who charged me extra from the fuel I bought under the pretext that I didn’t have PoS,”our reporter who made purchase at the filing station in early December said.

Aside the filling stations, the ICIR visited the Kubwa village market-at the Bwari Area Council of the FCT and interacted with food sellers who readily had PoS merchants whom they refer food stuffs buyers to.

“I have experienced this several times when I went to buy from the market here in Kubwa. Some of the food sellers, especially the meat and ‘ogbono’ sellers will tell you to pay with charges to a PoS merchant nearby. The worse is the vegetable sellers who tell you they don’t have account and readily point to PoS merchants loitering around for you to pay,” a food seller and restaurant owner, Margaret Osai told The ICIR.

Industry analysts say this pattern pushes up inflation, especially with the current cash rationing currently being witnessed by the apex bank, to deposit money banks and automated-teller-machines (ATM).

“When so much money is chasing few goods it spikes inflation, remember, we’re import dependent and are highly exposed to monetary risks, with this kind of charges, it exposes all of us to higher inflationary risks because of higher cost of money in transactions,” a development economist, Celestine Okeke, told The ICIR.

Our reporter had a firsthand experience at the market while he went to make a Christmas purchase. He witnessed the usual antics of the meat sellers at the market.

“I don’t have an account but there are PoS merchants around who can help you transfer, and they pay me. That comes with a cost sir,” a clothes seller told our reporter who went to make purchase at the just ended festive season.

The ICIR reports that the PoS merchants hanging around the markets charge as high as N300 for N5,000 withdrawal and N600 for N10,000. It would be noted that these prices are not fixed, rather arbitrarily charged to customers who might not have options apart from the ‘proxy’ PoS merchants.

This development has kept surging the cost of funds for businesses, with Nigerians suffocating from the current 34.6 per cent inflationary pressure.

Most Nigerians are double-charged as cash scarcity persists with the CBN rationing of the cash further forcing Nigerians to buy naira with naira.

Lamenting about the development, Oluchi Okafor, a restaurant manager in Kubwa  told The ICIR that food buyers battle constant change in price and additional charges from PoS merchants.

“I had a terrible experience, and my meat seller will tell you he doesn’t have account for transfer and will go ahead to point at a POS where you can withdraw money and pay him.

“POS will charge you up to N1,000 for N50,000 cash. You will give it to the POS man and right in your front, the meat seller will hand it back to the POS girl and give you your meat! I noticed this and stopped buying from him,” she added.

The ICIR reported that CBN had directed Nigerian banks to set N100,000 per day as a withdrawal limit for customers on point-of-sale terminals nationwide amid cash scarcity.

The apex bank disclosed this in a recent circular to all Nigerian banks, titled, ‘cash-out limits for agent banking transactions,’ which outlines other measures.

CBN said the restriction was in line with the apex bank’s ongoing efforts to advance a cashless economy.

This directive is currently being exploited through arbitrary charges by traders under the guise of ‘no cash’ without being sanctioned by the relevant authorities.

Harrison EDEH

hedeh@icirnigeria.org

Harrison Edeh is a journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting, always determined to drive advocacy for good governance through holding public officials and businesses accountable.