POS business is one of the most lucrative business in Nigeria today, there is no street or location that you will enter where you can’t find a POS operator.
But, why is the business so common, is it profitable? Yes, POS business is very lucrative business in 2023 and you can easily start with 10k, 20k, 50k, or N100,000.
POS business is the best business to start in a rural area or sub-urban where a bank is far away. Most individuals usually use the POS terminal for business transactions, that is customers used the machine to make payments for whatever they purchased from the shop or supermarket.
But wait!
POS business in Nigeria started in 2013 after the introduction of the agent banking system by the central bank of Nigeria (CBN), the purpose is to make any financials related services to get to the public, mostly the rural people.
The benefits of POS business in Nigeria;
- It helps to reduce bank queues that always delay customers. With the help of POS agents, you can easily transfer or withdraw money without going to the bank.
- Nearest to the people, POS businesses make people not waste transport fares going to the bank most especially those that live in rural areas where there is no bank.
- You can go to the POS business center at any time of the day, unlike banks that usually close before 5 p.m., you can even use a POS machine at night.
How does POS business work?
A POS business operator is a sub-agent that works under super-agent banking to help different individuals to perform financial transactions in which the sub-agent gets a commission for all the transactions performed.
A POS business owner holds cash at hand and when any individual performs any transaction into his account he gains commission while the customer collects cash.
And in most cases, the customer may deposit cash and the sub-agent gets a commission for helping the customer deposit the money into his/her account.
A POS machine helps the POS agent to perform all financial transactions with the customer’s debit card. Once the agent inserts the customer’s debit card into the machine the customer will need to input his/her 4-digit debit card pin into the machine for any transaction to be performed.
The GPRS network connects to the bank’s server to approve the transaction, and if it goes successful, it will display a successful message and print out a receipt if available.
Services offered by POS businesses are;
- Withdrawal of funds from a bank account
- Opening a bank account
- Funds deposit
- Funds transfer
- Payment of bills such as electricity, TV subscription, airtime and others
- BVN enrolment.
Documents needed to apply for POS machine In Nigeria;
- Valid means of identification like National ID Card, Voter’s ID Card, etc.
- Passport photographs
- Bank Verification Number (BVN)
- Current Account references
- Evidence of business registration (CAC Certificate) (optional)
- Start-up funds/ capital minimum of N50,000
- Tax Identification Number (TIN)
Walk into any bank of your choice and ask for marketing department, once you enter marketing department that is where you can apply for the POS machine of that particular bank.
How to start POS Business in Nigeria:
- Learn and understand how the POS business works before you become an agent
- You need to have capital before you start the POS business
- Choose a very good location
- Get POS machine
- Start transacting.
There are many opportunities that are available for you when you become a POS agent, let me share with you some step by step guides that will help you become a POS business agent in Nigeria.
There are a lot of people who already have shops where they sell items, goods and services, and they later decide to start a POS business alongside for an extra infome, so if you already have a shop you can become a POS business agent and increase your daily income.
So many graduates and non-graduates are intoase business because it is a lega means of earning money in Nigeria.
For the records, there are many Super-agent of agent banking or banks who offer POS to their customers such as;
First bank, Wema Bank, Opay mobile bank,Bankly POS, MoniePoint POS, Kudi bank, GTbank, Page, Zenith bank, Access bank, Quickteller, Ecobank, Baxibox, UBA etc.
But Opay stand as a very preferred option by many POS agents, and one of the reasons is that it is free to obtain an Opay POS in Nigeria.
you do not need to purchase it before you can start the POS business however there are some things checked by the company before you can become an agent.
Below are the explanations of the 5 proven steps to start POS business in Nigeria today;
1. Learn and understand how the POS business works before you become an agent;
Today in Nigeria it is easy to become a POS agent but without the right knowledge you will find yourself falling into the business, this is why before starting the POS business using any financial institution’s terminal you need to be sure of what you want to do and you must know how the business works.
What people charge per transaction amount, how much you need to have in hand as cash, what bank accounts you need, processing large transactions and so many other things.
Also, you need to know how much capital you will need and be prepared for the daily hustle.
This is the first step towards becoming a POS agent in Nigeria, if you want to succeed in it, you need to step in with the right foot to avoid making too many mistakes that might cost you.
So learn as much as you can, find information about how the POS business runs and research on the best location to put your stand.
Also, there are times when you don’t need to start by building a roadside kiosk, sometimes what you need might just be to look for someone who already has a busy shop and start your POS business there.
This will help you gain customers easily instead of starting in a corner, it all depends on the location however and how busy it is.
Gather enough knowledge and it will help you start your POS business in Nigeria.
2. You need to have enough capital before you start the POS business:
This is one of the mistakes, POS agents make when they first start, you need capital to start the POS business, remember this aspect always.
When you start big and transacts a large sum of money, it will help you stand out and you can gain more customers quickly.
Imagine having customers willing to withdraw a large sum of money and you do not have enough cash at hand, you will end up losing customers.
When starting it I wise to have around N300,000 as capital, then start the business and make sure you don’t run out of cash see how well the business moves in the first 1 week to 1 month, And study how much is the max transactions at average that you process daily, from here you can start growing big.
Having reasonable capital will help you scale easily in the POS business!
3. Choose a very good location to start your POS business;
Location matters very well in the POS business, you need to understand that when you open a kiosk in an area where there are only a few people who may be the minors, then your POS business won’t move, you might be making only around N1,000 to N1,500 daily in a less populated area where there is no less demand for POS.
Another wise thing is not to start a POS where there are so many banks, if there are so many banks in an area, people will prefer going to these banks to withdraw or transfer money especially in ATM that allows its customers to withdraw with their ATM for free.
You might have one or two customers in areas where are there a lot of banks but it is not wise to start your POS stand in such areas.
Find a location where there are few banks, areas where there is a great population and that is where you can succeed fast in the POS business, POS business is easy, but you will slowly fail out and making almost nothing if you don’t start well.
So find a good location to start your business and you will enjoy been a POS business agent, yes as we mentioned before if you start in a very good area, you will get a lot of customers and your profit at the end of every month can be more than what most salary earners earn.
4. Get the POS machine;
You can choose to get POS machine from any banks or financial technology company, but the issue is that sometimes your gain depends on the POS machine that you are using for your business.
Most banks charge a large amount of money before one can get a POS machine for the POS business, but many financial institution companies offer free POS machine to their customers.
5. Start transacting:
Once you have obtained your POS machine, gotten a location or a POS stand to use then congratulations you have successfully become a POS Business agent, the next step would be to start processing payment for people.
You do not need to advertise yourself, the business will advertise itself as long as your POS machine and POS stand is in an open area where people can easily spot you and do business with you.
However, once you start, remember to be very careful, some people make a lot of mistakes, assuming a customer wants to withdraw N15,000 from their account, they type in N1,500 on the POS machine and you give the customers N15,000 (That is fifteen thousand nairas) or a customer who wants to withdraw N40,000 they type in N4,000 and give the customer N40,000.
Be very cautious in the business, when people say they make a transfer to you to get cash, verify the transactions well and be sure you have gotten it as most people can show fake alerts and so on.
Instruction for people who want to open a Kiosk as a POS business agent:
In your journey of becoming a POS agent and starting the POS business, one thing that we have mentioned as very important is your POS stand, you can have the machine and capital and not have people who would like to patronize your service so it is very important to get your POS to stand in the right place.
We know this information will help you, so we will share with you just what you need to know when planning how you can get a POS stand.
As we formerly advised, if you can find a shop which is already existing in an area where there is a flow of customers, people coming to buy things, you can talk to the shop owner for a space in the shop, inside or outside to run your POS business, you can reach an agreement for monthly settlement fees.
This is one of the advice we give to early POS agents, if you can get this part well worked out, your business will run smoothly, the advantage of starting your POS in an already existing shop is that it will give you more visibility, especially on big shops.
Well, in most cases you might not find a shop where it is best to run your POS business and if this becomes the case, what you can do is find a good corner, usually, we advise people to find a spot along the road, or inside a street to community where banks are not close. Then build a small kiosk or POS stand and you can begin your POS business.
You do not have to worry about having huge capitals, you can find a carpenter around you to construct a POS stand for you on your desired location once you have successfully obtained your POS machine and become a POS agent, you can start your business.
Question: What Business Can I Start With 100k In Nigeria?
How to grow big in the POS business in Nigeria:
As someone who has been in the POS business for a very long time, there are a lot of areas we wish to educate you in and guide in, POS business, a lot of people are rushing into it these days but only a few make a reasonable profit from their POS business.
So we are going to share with you how to grow your POS business in Nigeria, this is for those who have known how to become a POS agent or have successfully been approved and is already running the POS business in Nigeria.
Another thing you would also want to know is different POS charges, what fees are charged and how much fee should you charge your customers?
It is easy to start and grow big in the point of sales (POS) business once you have the right knowledge, most people who start in the rural areas have more advantages as there are few or almost no banks in those areas.
Even in urban areas POS business still appears to be profitable as the population in these cities dictate that not everyone would want to go and queue up in banks to withdraw money or do other financial transactions.
POS solves the problem of a queue in bank areas and ATMs. So there is no iota of doubt that there is a good business and a good market here.
The charges per denomination will determine on the area where your POS stand is located.
for example, in a student area, they charge as low as N30 for transactions below N2,000 and most areas charge N50, so you should study what people charge in your area to know what to charge your customers.
But to survive we have some key information for you. Once you become a POS agent successfully.
1. Make a good relationship with your customers;
A good relationship with people makes them feel comfortable whenever they come to your POS stand or store.
And this will help you grow because a lot of customers will always come to your shop especially if there is more than one POS around you.
Maintain a good relationship, be calm when talking with your customers and ensure that you give them the machine to type in their password themselves so they can feel safe.
When a customers credit card says insufficient funds, tell them calmly and if they defend otherwise ask them calmly to double-check their balance, if you are rude to them, they might not come to your shop or POS stand again.
This is one of the keys pieces of advice we give to all POS Business agents.
2. Try to be available on Sundays;
Most POS businesses will be closed on this day but people still do financial transactions on Sunday.
A lot of POS agents takes Sunday as a resting day, why it is fine to do so too, it might be wise to be available on Sunday when most people are not, that way people who do not know you before will do, and you can make extra profits. You can close earlier than the normal days and resume probably in the afternoon.
This is also good advice for people who wants to grow their POS business.
Simply find what Is best for you and if it is not convenient for you to open your POS kiosk on Sundays it is up to you and you can take the day off but this will help you grow your POS business fast.
3. Always be first to come and first to leave;
This will help your customers know you are serious and readily available whenever they need to make quick financial transactions.
Resuming on time, helps you reach more customers and become visible, closing late also helps you reach more customers.
We give this advice to people who are mostly in an area where there are many POS stands around, and in those cases standing out helps you reach more customers and one of the wise things to do is resuming earlier and closing later than the time everyone else closes.
Again this choice should depend on how convenient it will be for you.
4. Calculate your daily profit, and see how well you are performing;
This will help you know if the area your POS stand is located is okay.
Keep a record of your daily transactions This will enable you keep track of your business, when you record every transaction you can do a sum up at the end of the day to know how much you started with and ensure that you are not running into loss.
It will be easier for you to know when you overpaid a customer and debited less from their account unknowingly and you can then readjust and be more careful on processing transactions.
There are other reasons why it is good to keep a record of your transactions and most of it is to know how your business is profiting and to separate the profit from the capital.
5. Be calculative and avoid making mistakes during each transaction you process;
If you wrongly debit a customer, they will get furious and will not come to your POS stand again.
Some agents make a lot of mistakes, listen to the customer care and reconfirm how much they want to withdraw, if you do otherwise most customers will not be happy and they will become furious.
That might means they will not come to your POS stand again so be very cautious when processing transactions and dealing with people’s money.
6. Have a very good network and make sure your POS machine is always charged;
One of the worst scenarios is to insert your card in POS and they tell you shits related to networks, most POSs require internet access, so ensure that you have a good network always.
Also keep your POS charged, if you run out of battery you will not be available when customers need you.
I hope the information we have shared above will help you to operate a successful POS business in Nigeria.
How to make much profits in POS business in Nigeria:
There are some smart moves to make if you want to profit well in the POS business in Nigeria.
I have mentioned this particular point almost twice in this post, I cannot overemphasize much on it but it should be useful to you.
If you want to make a good profit from your POS business, just move away from the city and open it in a community that has no banking services.
sometimes you can pay policemen that will be patrolling the area with their Hilux and you’re good to go.
I’m telling you this particularly from experience, you will end almost in the means of nothing that can be an advantage in the city (urban areas) can also be a disadvantage for many.
You can also have several POS stand in different locations, place people there as you can not run it alone and this will put you at the forefront and increase your daily revenue from the POS business.
A lot of people start POS business and they do it as long term business or use it to support their other businesses, having many mainstreams of income gives you more chance to succeed easily and quickly.
Another smart area to start your POS business is around schools, Universities, Polytechniques, colleges of education and others. The population in this area is huge so the demand for POS will be on the rise.
In most campus areas, there are no banks or banks are located only In the cities, so putting a POS stand in a school area will help you make a good profit in the POS business.
Places, where ATMs are always crowded, is also a good place to start your Pos business or you can start in areas where there are shortages of banks/ATM posts, they both work vice versa.
When an ATM is crowded, and people want to leave there on time they will prefer using the POS, also when there are no banks or ATMs around, they would find POS to make transactions.
POS business also thrives well close to markets and banks because of the many transactions carried out in these places. In populous business premises like; supermarkets, malls and large vendors, putting a POS kiosk in these areas will help you make good profit as a POS agent.
Before opening your POS stand, see if there are already many around and avoid such areas.
This is a piece of advice is very important information for every POS agent to keep in mind, it is important and yet many people fail to check this properly when choosing a location for their POS business, and I have mentioned it here to guide you.
You need to know what your competition is like in whichever area you plan to start your POS business.
It is important to worry about those that already operate in your desired area of operation (that’s to say, where you want to site your pos business).
Secondly, those that are closest to your desired area of operation should also be carefully analyzed.
Knowing the number of competitors you have in a particular area, you are looking to situate your POS business helps you to be more strategic on how to go about running your POS business.
This will also help you check that you are not losing too much, in most cases if the area is already filled with many POS stands and you are finding it hard to get customers or daily patronage, do not hesitate to change your business location.
Use POS Banner and a good name to make your store attractive;
You can attract people easily when you have a POS business banner in Nigeria labelled well showing that you are a POS agent, people who do not know you before can easily find you if there is a good banner that advertises your POS, you can have this built-in your POS stand, or built separately and placed in front of your POS stand.
Use a good name for it; find a good venturing name for your business. It may not necessarily be your name. You can dub your business any name you feel is the best and could be easily pronounced by your would-be customers.
Also do not rush to change location when you are just starting, allow people to get used to you and know about your store then they can start doing business more with you.
The POS business is very lucrative and easy to start. But you need to be smart in the game, you need to stand out and ensure that you are focused,
when you keep being relevant and serve your customers well they will come to you again and again, and again, and that is how you get to make a lot of daily profit from the POS businesss in Nigeria.
Disadvantages of POS business In Nigeria
- Delay in reversal of failed transactions
- Network issues
- Customer’s information is at risk
- Most POS agents use the POS machine for fraud
- Insecurity in the area, which my cause arm robbers attack.
FAQs:
Is POS a profitable business?
Yes,
POS business is one of the most profitable business in Nigeria that is less stressful and fast moving in Nigeria right now.
How much can I make from POS business daily?
You can make above N5,000 daily from POS business depends on the area where you are located. Most POS in Semi-urban area where their is no bank normally earn up to N20,000 per day.
Which bank is best for POS business?
Their are a lot of banks that people normally partner with but OPAY POS and paycentre POS is currently the best right now.
Learn more: Top 5 Best POS Machine In Nigeria
How much can I use to open a POS business?
You can use up to N100,000 to start this business in any location in Nigeria. Most financial technology companies usually offer free POS so you will still need a caution fee of at least N20,000 for deposit into your account before you start.
What can I add to my POS business?
You can add POS business to any existing buying and selling business or you may start one as soon as you start the point of sales business.
However, adding POS to your existing business will help you attracte more customers and make more money, and the business you can add POS business to are;
- Selling data bundles
- Printing and selling recharge cards
- Selling mobile phone accessories
- Phone charging business
- Having provision store
- Cyber cafe business.
How much do POS charge in Nigeria?
Pos changes N100 to withdraw N1000 in most area in Nigeria, while some charges N50 per N1000.
This is the simple of the kind of POS banner you may design for your business.
