Following the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s recent cash swap policy and withdrawal limit reductions, several point of sale (POS) operators in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, have changed their charges.
According to THE QUEST TIMES sources, most POS operators charge an additional N300 to N500 per transaction for every N10,000 that is withdrawn or transferred to another account.
“We charged N100 for every N10,000 transaction before, but it’s now N300 for every N10,000,” an agent told The Quest Times.
The agent who only introduced herself as Joyce, stated that the fees were raised when banks imposed a 3% levy on withdrawals of more than N500,000.
“We had to increase our prices after the three per cent charges on our withdrawal today, three per cent. I feel this is day light robbery,” she said.
Another reason for the hike in charges, she explained, is that “some of the banks use savings instead of current accounts when issuing the PoS terminal because of the heavy charges involved. This development has forced us to choose between the devil and the deep blue sea.”
The CBN cash withdrawal limit policy, according to Joyce, has received a lot of unfavorable feedback from customers.
Tope, another operator in Apo, said he does between N700,000 and N900,000 transactions a week and does not like going to the bank every time he runs out of cash.
“I have resigned to fate,” he said, adding that he would be paying the three per cent bank charge for the withdrawals.
He added that he was worried that his customers might be discouraged from using POS.
Our correspondent was informed by a POS operator at Nyanya Motor Park this morning that they now had to pay additional fees to the banks in order to release the cash. “We now purchase cash from the bank,” she remarked.
“They currently sell it to us. We are left with no choice except to raise our prices,” she added.