CWG secures CBN PTSP Licence

Computer Warehouse Group Plc (CWG), the leading Pan-African ICT Company has secured the Payment Terminal Service Provider (PTSP) license from the Central Bank of Nigeria, reports ITRealms.

This license, ITRealms gathered, would afford CWG to offer services in the areas of Payment Terminal Service Provider (PTSP) to Point-of-Sale terminals (PoS) nationwide.

ITRealms reports that this followed a recent visit by a delegation of the apex bank to CWG in the last quarter of 2014 to assess the company’s readiness and ensure that the company has fulfilled all conditions necessary and is therefore qualified to be licensed as a Payment Terminal Service Provider in the country.

CBN Director of Banking and Payment Systems Department, Mr. Dipo Fatokun, in a letter addressed to Computer Warehouse Group (CWG), stated that CWG “has successfully passed through the various stages of evaluation.”

 These, ITRealms reports, include an inspection of the company’s facility and processes, an allowance of a test period, during which the company’s products were carefully examined for quality and standard. 

The letter further stated that CWG is “hereby licensed to perform the activities Payment Terminal Service Provider (PTSP) for Point-of-Sale terminals (POS) in Nigeria,” CBN declared.

The PTSP license certifies that a company has the infrastructure to competently deploy, maintain and provide support for POS terminals in Nigeria. According to the CBN, “A PTSP shall offer services to acquirers covering all aspects relating to terminal management support, including but not limited to purchase and replacement of spare parts, provision of connectivity, training, repairs, and development of value added services, amongst other things.”

Reacting to the development, Mr. Austin Okere, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer, CWG, noted that the license is a testimony to the capability CWG Plc to competently deploy functional PoS terminals to the market at a time when CBN is vigorously pursuing the ideal of making the Nigerian business clime a cashless model.

Although the number of POS terminals increased to about 125,000 as at June last year and the value of PoS transactions increased to about N138 billion during the same period, statistics from the apex bank also indicate that about 46 percent of adult Nigerians have no access to financial services. 

According to Okere, “Our track record in the financial services sector as indicated in the deployment of our Finacle core banking application to foremost banks in Nigeria, our technical platforms for Firstmonie and Diamond Yello account, are pointers to our capacity to be instrumental to the actualization of a truly cashless economy”.

For the Chief Technology officer, Mr. James Agada, CWG’s quest to deploy POS terminals is an integral part of her new business module christened CWG 2.0.

“The deployment of our POS terminals is inclusive of our business package for SMEs. We believe that there should be 17million terminals if there are over 17 million existing SMEs in the country. This would aid in the growth of smaller businesses and consolidate the cashless economy initiative of the government,” he said”

Agada pointed out that these terminals are going to be tailored to suite the specific peculiarities of SMEs and could work anywhere. 

“It will also allow merchants do more since it has multiple payment option. This means that a merchant can receive payments for bills, sell Jamb pins, airtime and importantly, keep inventory of sales using the same POS terminal. This will be our quota to enabling inclusive growth in the economy,” Agada said.

 
+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) @CWG @AustinOkere

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L-R: Mr. Amir I. Adamu, Senior Supervisor, Banking & Payment System, CBN; Mr. Sadiku Yakubu, Assistant Manager, Banking & Payment System, CBN and Mr. James Agada, Chief Technology Officer, CWG Plc during the PTSP Licence audit in Lagos