By Edith Igbokwe
The delay in getting into banks and using the Automatic Teller Machine due to the queue system put in place to comply with the COVID-19 lockdown regulations is working in favour of Point of Sale agents.
Impatient bank users are turning to the owners of the Point of Sale machines to transfer money or make withdrawals although at higher costs.
While withdrawal at ATM charges of other banks after third withdrawal was slashed to N35 by the Central Bank in December, last year, for electronic bank transfers, customers pay N10 for transfers below N5,000 and N25 for transfers between N5,000 and N50,000.
Following the lockdown ease, people started flooding banks to make transaction while keeping social distancing, limiting the number of customers that could be attended to.
This led to overcrowding at bank entrances and long queues at ATMs
That frustration is now leading many customers to patronise POS even when they have to pay more for any transaction.
For instance, a customer pays N200 when withdrawing an amount up to N5,000, N400 on cash withdrawal between N6,000 and N10,000 while the charges increase in proportion with the cash withdrawn or deposited.
Sharing their experiences with ECHONEWS, some of the customers confirmed that the POS transaction is easier and faster though costlier.
Albert Onyebuke said: “I am not used to patronising POS services but I have to use it to avoid long queue at the ATM. I made a withdrawal of N6,000 but it was not remitted from my bank account to the POS due to Network difficulties and I was told to lodge a complaint to my bank which I did and my money was reversed after two weeks because of the lockdown issues.”
Patricia Undie said:” I went to the bank to make deposit but I was given tag number 78 in the queue, I couldn’t stand the crowd and I left to make use of POS transaction which was done within some minutes and I paid N200 charge rate which is better than the stress and crowd I witnessed in the bank.”
One of the POS service operators at Oshodi Road by Church bus stop, Adeshola Ademola admitted that the business is booming as people fall back to the use of POS in order to avoid queue and stress encountered at the bank due to social distancing.
Ademola disclosed that the charge rates were higher because they needed to pay the banks too.
He said: “Transfer of cash from a customer’s account to another person’s account attracts double charges of N400 because we have to withdraw first from the customer’s account and then transfer to the recipient account but we may take N300 at times.
“And in compliance with the government directives, we keep social distancing and make sure that our customers use face mask before transactions are done.”
