CAC’s PoS Registration Order Sparks Industry Rift as 2026 Deadline Looms

The Corporate Affairs Commission’s push to clean up Nigeria’s fast-growing PoS ecosystem is already setting off a major industry split, with operator groups clashing over whether the new registration mandate is a long-overdue fix or an unnecessary burden.

Last week, the Commission directed all PoS operators, individual and business-name agents, to complete CAC registration before January 1, 2026, warning that unregistered terminals would be seized and operators shut down. The policy, CAC said, is meant to curb the surge of unregistered agents it believes pose risks to the financial system and violate CAMA 2020 and existing CBN guidelines.

But the directive has quickly turned into one of the sector’s most heated disputes in years.

AMMBAN Rejects the Order, Calls It ‘Unnecessary and Out of Scope’

The Association of Mobile Money and Bank Agents in Nigeria (AMMBAN) is leading the resistance.
Its national president, Fasasi Sharafadeen, argues the policy is both excessive and misaligned with the realities of agent banking.

According to him, PoS agents already undergo “multiple layers of verification” through banks and the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS), making the CAC’s additional requirement redundant.

He questioned the Commission’s claim that the mandate will reduce fraud, pointing out that CAC registration has never prevented corporate entities from engaging in fraudulent activities. Sharafadeen also noted that security issues within the PoS sector are being handled through existing CBN frameworks and a joint task force involving the Police, DSS, EFCC, and industry bodies.

CBN Caps PoS Agents’ Daily Transactions at ₦1.2 Million

He further insists that the directive contradicts CBN’s rules: individuals trading under their personal names, he said, are not legally required to register with the CAC.
If the Commission does not reverse course, AMMBAN is considering a legal challenge.

ADPPON Supports Cleanup Efforts but Warns Against Solo Enforcement

On the other side of the divide is the Association of Digital Payment and PoS Operators of Nigeria (ADPPON), which backs the government’s push for stricter oversight.

Its president, Paul Okafor, said rising fraud, kidnapping-for-cash incidents, and illicit financial flows justify a structured cleanup of the agent network. Fraud in the financial sector, he noted, jumped from ₦17.67bn in 2023 to ₦52.26bn in 2024, with PoS agents increasingly targeted.

However, ADPPON stressed that CAC cannot enforce compliance alone.
Past attempts, the group argues, failed because they lacked coordination across the CBN, Police, fintech companies, and operators themselves. ADPPON is pushing for a multi-agency task force, a harmonized compliance timeline, nationwide sensitization, and a verification framework that protects small operators while improving security.

This isn’t the CAC’s first registration push.
In 2024, the Commission gave PoS agents, especially those working with major fintechs like OPay, PalmPay, and Moniepoint, a July 7 deadline. After widespread complaints about slow registration processes, the deadline was extended to September. The threat of prosecution followed, but many agents still did not register.

The new January 2026 deadline suggests that the compliance gap remains wide, and that the CAC is preparing for a harder, more coordinated enforcement round.