Ola Olukoyede, chairman of 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.
Olukoyede spoke on Wednesday when a delegation from the Association of Mobile Money and Bank Agents in Nigeria (AMMBAN), led by Oti Obioha, its national president, visited the agency’s headquarters.
Olukoyede, who was represented by Michael Nzekwe, his chief of staff and commander of the EFCC, said POS operators are now involved in financial crimes, including terrorist financing, ransom payments and money laundering.
According to him, the association needs to strengthen its structure and establish a comprehensive framework to monitor its members and prevent criminals from exploiting POS terminals.
“We have realised that the issues of money laundering, terrorist financing, and even ransom payments are made mostly from POS machines,” the EFCC chairman said.
“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 also questioned the association’s system for training members and keeping records of their addresses and transactions.
“There are even some POS operators who are actually fraudsters; they aid, conspire, give out information and abet fraudsters,” he said.
“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, there are no records of the transactions, and no one is asking questions.
“You need to put your house in order and do more.”
He urged AMMBAN leaders to ensure that members keep financial records of every transaction and maintain records of their operators across the country.
He said the commission is ready to work with the association on training, awareness creation and information sharing.
On his part, the AMMBAN president said the activities of POS operators have financial implications, which require close collaboration with the anti-graft agency.
“We deem it fit to present ourselves to help and work with the EFCC in preventing money laundering and other kinds of fraud,” he said.
“We are at the grassroots, and we observe that your institution is always inviting our members.
“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.
“So, we are here to help you curb the rate of fraud in the business we do.”
