The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has issued a 30 Days’ notice to all Point of Sale (POS) operators to route transactions through licensed Payment Terminal Service Aggregators (PTSA). This directive was issued in circular posted on the CBN’s website.
The circular reads as follows, “To achieve the objective of tracking electronic transactions in Nigeria, the Central Bank of Nigeria in August 2011, granted a Payment Terminal Service Aggregator license to Nigeria Interbank Settlement System Plc.
“As part of efforts to mitigate the concerns regarding channeling all Point of Sale transactions through a single aggregator, the CBN on April 19, 2024, granted a second PTSA license to Unified Payment Services Limited.
“In furtherance of the above, the CBN hereby directs as follows: 1 Acquirers are henceforth required to route all transactions from POS terminals at merchant and agent locations, whether on physical or electronic POS terminals, through any CBN-licensed Payment Terminal Service Aggregator (PTSAs) are required to send POS transactions to only Processors certified by the relevant Payment Scheme, nominated by the Acquirer and licensed by CBN.”
The apex bank stated that all Payment Service Providers (PSPs) responsible for processing payments from POS terminals, must channel their transactions via any of the 2 licensed aggregators.
It also stated that all PSPs are expected to regularize their operations with PTSAs within 30 days, adding that non-compliance would attract stiff sanctions.
