CBN gives 60-day deadline for geo-tagging of PoS terminals
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has issued a directive mandating the geo-tagging of all Point of Sale (PoS) terminals nationwide within the next 60 days.
The move is aimed at tackling electronic payment fraud and strengthening regulatory oversight.
In a circular dated August 25, signed by Rakiya Yusuf, Director of the Payments System Supervision Department, the bank said every terminal must have “native geo-location services enabled, with Double-Frequency GPS receivers for reliable geo-location service.”
According to the guidelines, service providers are required to register each PoS machine with a Payment Terminal Service Aggregator (PTSA) and supply precise coordinates of merchants’ or agents’ business locations.
Transactions will now require geo-location data at the point of initiation, while those conducted outside a 10-metre radius from the registered address will be flagged.
The apex bank warned that terminals not geo-tagged within the deadline will be unable to process transactions. It also noted that newly deployed devices must be tagged before they can be certified and activated.
“All existing terminals and newly registered terminals must ensure strict adherence always to approved MSC code per sector: All existing terminals must be geo-tagged within 60 days of this circular; new terminals going forward must be geo-tagged before certification and activation,” the circular stated.
In addition, the CBN directed payment companies to migrate to the ISO 20022 global messaging format — a standard developed by SWIFT to improve transaction data quality and security — by October 31, 2025.
The new framework also requires PoS devices to operate on Android version 10 or higher to enable integration with the National Central Switch, which will host geolocation monitoring and geofencing tools.
“All payment transaction messages exchanged domestically or internationally must be formatted in ISO 20022 in line with CBN and SWIFT specifications,” the bank said, noting that compliance checks will commence from October 20.
