PoS agents fault CAC’s mandatory registration

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Point-of-Sale operators have faulted the Corporate Affairs Commission’s plan to begin enforcing compulsory registration of all PoS agents from January 1, 2026, stating that the commission lacks the legal authority to compel individuals to register.

The agents insisted that the CAC’s directive has no constitutional backing and contradicts existing regulations guiding agent banking in the country.

In a public notice on Saturday, the CAC directed all PoS agents across the country to complete their registration before January 1 next year, warning that unregistered operators would be barred from conducting business thereafter.

The commission said it had observed a surge in unregistered PoS operators nationwide, stressing that operating an unregistered PoS business violates the Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020 and the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Agent Banking Regulations.

Speaking with Sunday PUNCH, the National President of the Conference of Agents Associations in Nigeria, Fasasi Atanda, described the CAC’s enforcement plan as a misplaced initiative that ignores the laws regulating PoS operations.

Citing the CBN’s Agent Banking Regulation, Atanda stressed that the framework expressly allows individuals to run PoS operations without any obligation to register with the CAC.

He said, “CAC has no constitutional right to enforce all individuals to register with it. Only those that are non-individuals, those that are operating as business entities, can be forced to register with the CAC.

“There are two segments in PoS business operation—individual and non-individual, and it is the decision of every agent to either be an individual or an entity, which is a limited or a business. All these threats should be within the law. They can enforce those that are operating as a business, not those that are operating as individuals.”

Atanda vowed to drag the commission before the National Assembly and other relevant agencies.

He argued that PoS operators already fall under strict regulation by financial institutions and the CBN, which supervise all agent banking activities.

“What the CAC is relying on doesn’t add up. They cannot mislead Nigerians by claiming PoS agents are unregistered. Every PoS agent is already registered with a financial institution. This industry is one of the most regulated in the country. Agents do not operate in isolation.

“Asking individual agents to register with the CAC is like asking the branches of commercial banks to register as separate entities, which makes no sense because they operate under their parent institutions.

“The CBN Agent Banking Regulation provides for people to carry out PoS operations as individuals, and they don’t have any business with the CAC,” Atanda said.

He also dismissed the CAC’s claim that mandatory registration would improve security, saying, “CAC has no security in tracking and verifying addresses.”

Atanda accused the commission of pursuing revenue rather than public interest and called on regulatory authorities to caution the agency.

He maintained that PoS operators already undergo multiple layers of verification and oversight under the CBN framework and do not need an additional CAC requirement.

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