In a bid to ensure success of the cash-less policy, banks in the country have rolled out 100,000 Point of Sale (PoS) terminals.
Head, Shared Services at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Chidi Umeano, who disclosed this in Lagos, said “banks are expected to deploy over 150,000  PoS terminals by the end of this year.”

According to him, “the cash-less project is on course and the initial challenges are being overcome.  Banks have continued to roll out more innovative electronic payment platforms to meet customers’ expectations. Currently, banks have deployed about 100,000 PoS terminals and before the end of the year, if things go as planned, about 150,000 PoS terminals will have been deployed,” he said.

Umeano also said the CBN was set to acquire a new fraud prevention system, payments system oversight and anti-fraud system, to tackle fraud in the electronic payment (e-payment) system, stating that the goal of the system was to provide the facility to distinguish fraudulent and legitimate transactions based on redefined checks in online payments.

The CBN, he said, “believes the adoption of the system will boost the cash-less initiative by strengthening the protection against fraudulent payment activities.”

Fraud has always been one of the biggest challenges of any online payment system. Increasing fraud rates around the world has dampened the growth of electronic payment by exposing merchants to substantial losses and unnerving security-conscious customers.

”The fraud detection system will help detect potential fraud situations through the generation of online alerts as a result of transaction analyses,”  Umeano said.

He said this would help the apex bank in the efficient documentation of potential fraud situations, as well as facilitate identification and capturing of fraudsters. Aside the payments system oversight and anti-fraud system, Umeano noted that CBN, as part of measures to manage fraud on the e-payment landscape, had in 2010, effected migration from the magnetic stripe-based payment tokens, to the Chip and Personal Identity Number (PIN)-compliant channels and tokens, thereby recording over 90 per cent drop in card-related fraud incidents.

He added that the CBN instituted an industry ATM Anti-fraud Committee, which was adjusted to become the E-Payment Fraud Forum, a group that ensures that anti-fraud mechanisms are kept abreast of new challenges for proactive responses.

Umeano called on the National Assembly to expedite action on the Payment System Management Bill and the Financial System Ombudsman Bill, in addition to review of the Evidence Act to give legal backing to regulations and guidelines in the payments sector, and enforcement of same.