Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has ordered all point-of-sale (PoS) operators to register their businesses before January 1, 2026, or risk having their terminals seized. The move marks the government’s most forceful attempt yet to formalise an industry that has grown rapidly but unevenly, and it places renewed pressure on fintech companies to tighten compliance across their agent networks.
In the public notice dated December 6, 2025, the CAC said it had observed “the rising number of PoS operators running without registration,” describing the trend as a violation of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA 2020) and the Central Bank of Nigeria’s agent banking regulation.
“No PoS operator will be allowed to operate without CAC registration,” the Commission said. In April 2024, reported that the Nigerian government mandated all PoS agents to register with the CAC as part of regulatory efforts to improve transparency and reduce fraud.
The crackdown follows months of policy shifts that show regulators are increasingly concerned about the size, reach, and vulnerability of Nigeria’s agent banking ecosystem, which boasts an estimated over 1.9 million PoS agents. PoS terminals processed ₦10.51 trillion in Q1 2025, a 301.67% increase from the previous year, according to data from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS).
With PoS terminals now serving as the primary cash access point for millions of Nigerians, the CAC’s action signals a coordinated push to close compliance gaps. In August, the CBN ordered that all Point of Sale (PoS) terminals be restricted to a 10-metre radius of their registered address.
The CAC is now directly targeting PoS operators, an industry previously overseen almost entirely by the CBN and the fintech companies that deploy agent banking terminals. It said security agencies will enforce compliance nationwide, and unregistered PoS terminals will be seized or shut down. Fintech companies enabling unregistered operators will be reported to the CBN and placed on a watchlist, it added.
The directive intensifies the regulatory spotlight on fintechs, many of which have aggressively expanded their agent networks over the past five years. There were 8.36 million registered PoS terminals, with 5.90 million active/deployed as of March 2025. Fintech-led agent networks have been at the centre of conversations about fraud, KYC, and weak oversight.
