The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has warned Point of Sale (PoS) operators across the country against aiding fraudsters and money launderers in perpetrating financial crimes.
The EFCC Executive Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, gave the warning on Wednesday, when a delegation of the Association of Mobile Money and Bank Agents in Nigeria (AMMBAN), led by its National President, Oti Obioha, paid a courtesy visit to the Commission’s headquarters.
Olukoyede, who spoke through his Chief of Staff, Commander of EFCC, CE Michael Nzekwe, said AMMBAN needed to strengthen its structure and develop a comprehensive framework to curb financial crimes associated with PoS operations.
He said the absence of adequate records and monitoring mechanisms could make it easier for fraudsters to exploit PoS machines for illicit transactions.
“We have realised that the issues of money laundering, terrorist financing, and even ransom payments are made mostly from POS machines. Your association needs to do more, by coming up with a structure and a comprehensive framework that will have records of all your operators, so that during the course of investigation, we will be able to trace, monitor and have records that can aid us,” he said.
Olukoyede also questioned the association’s level of oversight, training and record-keeping among its members.
“My question is, what is the impact of your association on the members? Do you train your members? Do you have records of the address of your members? I think you need to have more awareness and training for your members,” he said.
He further warned that some PoS operators could be directly involved in financial crimes by aiding or conspiring with fraudsters.
“There are even some POS operators who are actually fraudsters; they aid, conspire, give out information and abet fraudsters. Most times, in the course of investigation, when you find out that money was laundered through a POS operator, by the time you bring them in, they won’t even know the person who sent the money and who withdrew it, no records of the transactions, and no one is asking questions,” he said.
The EFCC chairman urged AMMBAN to “put your house in order and do more,” particularly by ensuring that members maintain proper financial records for every transaction.
He also called on the association to maintain comprehensive records of its members across the country to assist investigations when necessary.
Olukoyede expressed the Commission’s readiness to collaborate with AMMBAN in the areas of training, awareness creation and information sharing to strengthen compliance and curb financial crimes.
Responding, Obioha thanked the EFCC for receiving the association, saying the activities of PoS operators had significant financial implications and required close collaboration with the Commission.
“We deem it fit to present ourselves to help and work with the EFCC in preventing money laundering and other kinds of fraud. We are at the grassroots and we observe that your institution is always inviting our members, so we wish we can have a partnership that can see to the training of our members on some of the issues like financial thresholds and the risks involved in some of our operations,” he said.
Obioha said the association was willing to collaborate with the EFCC to reduce fraud within the PoS business.
“We want to collaborate in the areas of training, because most of our agents don’t know the rules of our operations. So, we need to partner in creating awareness,” he said.
