* AMMBAN wants FG to understand agents’ plight, assist them
* Body carpets FCCPC, urges agency to go after bakers, others

Users of Point of Sales (POS) will be greeted with new service charge beginning today, if threat by Association of Mobile Money and Bank Agents (AMMBAN) is anything to go by.

AMMBAN had cited current economic realities in the country for the proposed hike, which, in some quarters, has been put at about 400 per cent. While AMMBAN boasts of about 1.4 million members, largely PoS agents, transactions on the about two million PoS terminals in the country rose to about 40 per cent in the first three months of the year, according to checks on the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS).

Speaking with The Guardian, yesterday, National Publicity Secretary, AMMBAN, Oluwasegun Elegbede, maintained that the hike takes effect today (Monday). He explained that the operators also have to adjust, “as everybody in business in Nigeria has adjusted to current realities, especially after the removal of fuel subsidy. You must have noticed that in Nigeria, nobody is living; we are all just surviving, except those in power. On the streets, people are merely using each day to survive.”

He said PoS operators are part of the ecosystem and are in business to make profit.

Amid report that the hike might go as far as about 400 per cent, Elegbede said: “Let me clarify this, we (AMMBAN) have not said, compulsorily, there should be a particular percentage hike on any transaction. What we have done, if you can even recollect, during the surprise hike that happened in January, February and March this year, some unscrupulous elements entered into the business and started to hike prices indiscriminately, and the cry across the town was that PoS operators have done this, have done that, whereas, it was not our members that did it.

“What we are trying to do now is that after hearing several outcries from our people, there was a blanket framework, where it was stipulated that prices should not go beyond a certain threshold, and below it, in each of the states.”

He said what the national body did was to tell members in each state to come up with what was suitable, as far as realities in those areas allowed. Elegbede said AMMBAN will not dictate from Lagos, what is going to happen in Sokoto or Edo States. “In essence, there is no particular percentage. What matters is that the agent is making reasonable profit after overhead costs are removed.”

On threat by Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), Elegbede said AMMBAN is currently sensitising people on current realities in the country.

According to him, no institution of government has ever dictated prices since PoS business started in Nigeria. He explained: “There are two-folds to our business. First, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) regulates what the MMOs charge. Secondly, the entrepreneurship aspect, where we play; we are the ones that determine, based on where we operate. CBN cannot say I should be charging N200 in a local government, where there are no banks and I would be required to travel more than 200 kilometers to get cash. Where I source for cash, through loans, I am required to pay huge interest. I also pay fees for shop rented, buy data and provide for my own security. CBN cannot dictate, likewise FCCPC. They are not considering all these factors.”

“What we have come to discover about some regulators, especially FCCPC, is that they just handpick a particular industry or organisation they want to focus on. After our communiqué on hike came out, I have seen other industries, such as bakers association, saying they would increase prices of bread by 15 per cent, but nothing has been done to them. FCCPC is just grandstanding. When pump price of fuel was increased, what did they do? Same with MultiChoice, between last year and now, they have increased tariff. What has FCCPC done? We are waiting for how their plans will play out.

“The business of PoS will cease, if people are not making profit. It is the goal of the Federal Government to deepen financial inclusion. But in a situation, where people, who are majorly active players in the ecosystem, are not helped, what happens to the ecosystem?”

While appealing to PoS agents to be cautious, a telecoms expert, Kehinde Aluko, said the move to increase charges on PoS transactions in Lagos is not good for the economy because, if not curbed, it would spread to other parts of the country. Aluko, who advocated a free market with no regulations from any private sector association, said government should take immediate steps to stop this type of price control.