The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has increased oversight of agent banking, requiring geo-tagging of all Point of Sale (PoS) terminals across the country.
Under the new guidelines, any operator who does not comply would be penalized at least N5 million and would be subject to an extra daily charge of N300,000 until compliance is reached.
Announced through a circular dated October 6, 2025, and signed by Musa I. Jimoh, Director of Payments System Policy, the new rule aims to improve openness and responsibility inside Nigeria’s expanding agent banking environment. The decision follows the country’s millions of deployed PoS terminals as the industry grows swiftly.
New Guideline specifics;
Although the circular will take effect at once, the agent location and exclusiveness clauses will be enforced starting on April 1, 2026. PoS devices will be geo-locked to their authorized company premises, hence stopping mobile or illegal activity. Any device running outside of its registered coordinates will incur penalties.
Furthermore, all banks and super agents have to keep current public registers of their agents available both online and in physical locations. Super agents are likewise required to have at least 50 active agents spread throughout Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones. Operators have to get advance written permission and offer clients a 30-day notice at the site before any relocation, transfer, or closing of an agent’s company.
The penalty system stated in the rules is harsh. Operators could lose tens of millions of naira from a protracted breach before further steps like delisting, blacklisting, or suspension are contemplated. Late reporting, agent misbehavior, fraud, unlawful transactions, and failure to keep correct records are also addressed under the framework.
The News Chronicle learned that the CBN’s bigger goal to clean the PoS sector, reduce fraud, and strengthen consumer protection includes the new rules. The top bank aims to make sure financial transactions processed via PoS terminals are safe, traceable, and linked to vetted company locations.
The CBN had guaranteed that new devices were set up and ordered all current PoS terminals to be geo-tagged within 60 days in August 2025, before deployment. That directive also required all devices to support geolocation within a 10-meter radius of their registered sites, introducing the ISO 20022 global messaging standard.
As of March 2025, Nigeria has over 8.3 million registered PoS terminals and around 5.9 million actively installed; therefore, the project is one of the biggest compliance initiatives in the fintech sector of Africa. Although the April 1, 2026, extension gives operators more time to adapt, noncompliance could still lead to severe penalties or complete network disconnection.
While smaller companies may see increased operational expenses as a result of the new standards, experts believe many more modern PoS devices already have in-built GPS features; therefore, compliance is more straightforward via reconfiguration than whole replacement.
