‘Restrict operation to commercial areas’, FCTA tells PoS operators

The operators of Point of Sales terminals have been ordered by the Federal Capital Territory Administration to limit their activities to exclusively commercial locations.

Umar Shuaibu, the coordinator of the Abuja Metropolitan Management Council, said the administration would not permit PoS operators to illegally occupy sensitive areas not authorized for commercial use while speaking to press in Abuja on Wednesday.

Shuaibu declared that the operators’ indiscriminate actions had put the security of the area in danger and would no longer be tolerated. He clarified that the neighbourhood concept, which would bring all services closer to the people, was a key component of the Abuja Master Plan.

He said, “We have neighbourhood centres and city centres; all of these centres have commercial areas, so whatever someone needs within the neighbourhood is available, no need to take over the street,  that is how the master plan was designed. Financial services are brought closer to the people because of the CBN cashless policy; that is why we have PoS operators, let there be sanity.

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“However, there are challenges; the points of sale operators do not operate in the areas that they are supposed to operate according to the provision of the master plan. We have commercial centres, plazas, markets, supermarkets, and filling stations, these are areas for commercial activities. So, the PoS operators have to liaise with owners of these properties for their services, this is in line with international best practices.

“Henceforth, all PoS operators must relocate to commercial areas and liaise with the premises’ owners, where their services are needed. This will help check mate insecurity. The Minister of the FCT has given us the directives to ensure that all illegal PoS operators should relocate to appropriate areas”.

The administration supports the PoS initiatives and the CBN cashless policy, but there are security concerns, according to Mr. Ikharo Attah, Senior Special Assistant on Monitoring, Inspection and Enforcement to the Minister of FCT.