Naira Scarcity In Banks Fuels Fear Of Exploitation By PoS Agents In Nigeria

Mobile money agents have become a familiar sight across Nigeria, using handy point-of-sale machines to provide essential services to millions of people without access to banking, particularly in hard-to-reach rural areas.

Even on the streets of major cities, they have become a go-to, due to an ongoing shortage of cash at ATMs since a much-vilified redesign of the national currency, the naira, last year.

But opposition is growing to their activities, with claims that some are exploiting the country’s financial plight, compounding the worst cost-of-living crisis that Nigerians have faced in decades.

In 2013, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)announced a drive to improve access to financial services across the country.

According to Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access (EFInA), an NGO, by the end of last year, at least 74 percent of adults in Nigeria had access to financial services. Just over half (52 percent) used traditional banks.

The central bank’s decision and the cash crunch, however, have given ordinary Nigerians reliant on cash no alternative but to use agents, experts say.