•As 66,770 merchants queue for devices Indications have emerged that the cashless economy being driven by the Central Bank of Nigeria and other stakeholders may have been slowed down by acute deficit of Point of Sales (PoS) terminals in the country.
This came about as the number of registered merchants, who are currently yearning for PoS devices, now outweighs the number of PoS devices that have been deployed in the country so far.
It was learnt that while the accumulative number of PoS deployed and connected to the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System, NIBSS's Central Terminal Management System stood at 117, 412 as at April 2013, registered merchants queuing for PoS devices have reached an all-time high at 184, 182 at the same period.
Executive of Shared Services, Governors' Department of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Ms Monica Adoghe disclosed this during the 2013 Card and Mobile Expo organised by Intermac Consulting Limited.
Adoghe, who pointed out that the increase in the number registered merchants beyond the deployed and connected PoS was an indication of the readiness of the Nigerians to accept the cashless initiative, however, said the shortage had been caused by the Nigerian Customs, "for delaying PoS devices clearing at the Ports."
She also noted that that all sort of PoS devices would have flooded Nigeria but that the CBN had selected only four Payment Terminals Services Providers, PTSP, to deploy the devices in the country so as to ensure that only internationally- acclaimed firms were allowed to do the deployment.
On the benefits of the Cashless Lagos, which started last year, Adoghe said by the end of December 2012, "we have reduced industry of cost cash handling by 30 per cent."
According to her, recent commissioned studies by the regulators to assess the progress being made particularly in the Cashless Lagos Initiative showed that 85 per cent people in the State are now aware of the cashless scheme, saying that there had been continuous drop in the volume of cash in the circulation.
She also noted that on security, the industry has achieved over 90 per cent drop in card0-related fraud incidences, stressing that the industry regulator was also collaborating with necessary stakeholders on new measures that could be explored to make the scheme work better.
Head, Strategy at NIBSS, Mr. Goriola Olayemi, who also cited a recent survey commissioned by NIBSS, noted that though the PoS is the most preferred means of payments after cash for the merchants, only about 15 per cent of the transactions were perceived by the merchants as transactions successfully performed.
According to him, with over 50 per cent citing connectivity problems as a major problem, Olayemi said a lot still needed to be done by the telecoms operators to assist in making their netwo0rk more readily available and robust to adequately support the cashless scheme.
"We know that there are still a lot challenges that we would need to address which include the need to improve communications infrastructures, minimise PoS problems, reduce declined transactions and engage merchants and customers more to encourage e-payment culture," she said.
He also advocated the need to make more PoS available to general merchants who are co0ntraehated in major popular markets and commercial clusters across Lagos metropolis.
National Mirror
I feel the cashless ish is already working in some parts of Lagos so that definately means it is taken seriously.