• Scammers, low patronage killing us, POS operators lament
From Charity Nwakaudu, Abuja
Despite being seemingly easy to start up, Point of Sale (POS) operators in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, have continued to lament low profit. They attribute it to increased activities of scammers.
Some described the methods used by the scammers to be highly technical and very difficult to understand. They said, apart from being scammed, the business requires greater attention and commitment.
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They said any little mistake made in entering figures could also result in losses, as most customers are not ready to return any excess payment. Others lamented that since Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) resumed disbursing cash regularly patronage has fallen.
An operator at the NNPC Junction, Kubwa, Susan Oche, said: “There are a lot of challenges attached to the business. The challenges are very difficult to ascertain by an ordinary person. Sometimes the victim finds it difficult to know that he or she has been scammed.
“I lost N50,000 to a customer, whose transaction showed successful and later turned declined after paying the person. I can’t really tell how it happened. The transaction was successful before I gave him the money only for me to discover it later declined.
“I called the customer because it was an Opay account number. He became furious, warned me never to call him again and later the line became unreachable. It was a terrible experience for me because it was my two and a half months’ salary.
“My boss was not ready to listen to me. I paid that money in batches. That incident nearly stopped the job. I had to continue due to the fact that I didn’t want to stay at home. I learnt to be very careful in discharging my duties from that incident.”
Another operator at Wuse market, Chidi Agu, said despite poor patronage due to availability of cash in the ATMs now, she lost all the cash with her after changing money for a customer: “This is more of spiritual because nobody touched me. The customer, after withdrawal, brought out N1,000 note and begged me to change it to N200 notes which I did and he left.
It was when the next customer came for withdrawal that I discovered that my bag was empty. I searched for the man everywhere in the market, he was nowhere to be found. That was how I lost about N150,000 within a twinkling of an eye.”
Justin Age operates at Utako Market: “Since the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), introduced the new charging rate, business has dropped. Nigerians now prefer going to the bank or ATM galleries for transactions.
“It is not funny. Today, can you imagine that only five customers came to my stand. Before, I know what I would have made. I’m happy that cash scarcity has disappeared since the CBN sanctioned some banks. But we are now having low patronage because people now prefer to go to the banks to collect money, which is affecting our business.”
Success Agbo operating in Banex Plaza, said: “Though scammers are all over, the main threat to the business is the new charge introduced by CBN. It has forced customers to go to banks and ATM points to withdraw.
“If the low patronage continues, we will be forced out of business. We have even reduced the money we collect as charge. Yet we are still experiencing low patronage. There is an amount of money we are expected to make to continue having our machines.
“The situation is not palatable at all. Some days we find it difficult to meet our limit. So we just transfer from the POS account to other accounts and later we return it, to make us reach the day’s limit.”
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