The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) is holding up deployment of Point of Sale (PoS) terminals for next year’s implementation of the cash-lite initiative.
Speaking on the sidelines of a seminar organised by the Committee of e-Banking Industry Heads (CeBIH) yesterday in Lagos, CBN Deputy Governor, Operations, Tunde Lemo, said the Customs is constituting a roadblock to the apex bank’s target of deploying 40,000 PoS terminals by year end.
The CBN had earlier set a target of 40,000 PoS terminals by end-December 2011 for the ‘Cash- Lagos’ project set to commence by January 1, 2012, to cater for settlement of transactions, alongside other electronic payment options
Lemo said the Nigeria Customs classifies PoS terminals as ‘cash registers’ and so is demanding a 20 per cent administrative charges on each terminal being imported by the commercial banks, and coordinated by the CBN, instead of the usual five per cent.
He said this has significantly affected deployment of the terminals, ahead of initial implementation of the initiative in Lagos.
But the Customs National Public Relations Officer, Wale Adeniyi insisted that the tariff for PoS remains at 20 per cent. He said there is no problem between the Customs and the CBN over tariff. He said the issue at hand has to do with the law, stressing that the Customs does not have the power to grant waivers on tariffs excepts the Federal Government.
“The CBN is not having any problems with the Customs, but the law. It is not in our interest to grant waivers unless we are directed to do so. It is not a matter of the Customs, but a matter of the law,” Adeniyi told our correspondent yesterday.
Lemo however, said all attempts to make the Customs Service see reason had fallen on deaf ears, including written letters to the Comptroller-General of the Service. He said the CBN was ready to dialogue with the NCS but will invoke the aid of relevant political authority to arbitrate on the issue, if need be.
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CBN: Customs impeding cash initiative