The Central bank of Nigeria has ordered banks, fintech companies and other licensed payment operators to install GPS tracking at all POS -Terminals (Point of Sale) in order to tighten the monitoring of electronic transactions.
The guideline was contained in a circular dated to the Department of Payment Systems, which was signed by Rakiya Yusuf.
According to CBN, all POS devices must be activated “native geo-location services, whereby GPS receivers are double frequency for a reliable geo-location service”.
The operators must register each terminal with a payment connection and provide precise coordinates of the dealer or agent's business location.
The new rules mean that each POS machine must record and transmit its location data at the beginning of a transaction.
Activities outside of a 10-meter radius of the registered business or service point are identified, while not geo-marked terminals are excluded from processing payments.
The regulatory authority said existing machines must be marked within 60 days, and new devices must be marked before certification and activation.
“Geo-location data must be recorded during transaction initiation and included in the news burden as a mandatory reporting field: terminals that are not directed directly to a PTSA must not remove.
“All existing terminals and newly registered terminals must be strictly recorded on the approved MSC code per sector: All existing terminals must be marked within 60 days after this circular.
The measures result in an increase in the use of POS machines across Nigeria. Once considered an alternative, POS agents have become a central component of the country's cash economy and treat millions of payments every day, since the banks often run the branch and ATMs dry.
However, the boom has also led risks because the fraud complaints with POS agents have increased, and security officers say that in some cases kidnappers have forced the victims to transfer ransom money via the nearby POS operators in order to avoid discovery.
New standard
The CBN also instructed payment companies to adopt a new global standard for transaction reports, which are known as ISO 20022, by October 31.
The standard developed by Swift is expected that the quality of the transaction data is improved and, both domestic and cross -border payments, will be made more secure and efficient.
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All POS devices must be carried out on Android version 10 or higher to integrate into the National Central Switch, whereby the software kit is hosted for monitoring and geofencing geolocation.
“All payment reports in Germany or internationally are exchanged in ISO 20022 in accordance with CBN and Swift specifications.
“All institutions ensure a complete and exact population of mandatory data elements, including payer/payer identifiers, dealer/agent identifiers and transaction metadata.
“All in-scope institutions must complete migration activities and be completely compliant on October 31, 2025 at the latest,” it was.
The bank said it would start with the compliance checks by October 20.
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