Insecurity: FCTA bans POS operators from residential areas

The federal capital territory administration (FCTA) has ordered point of sale (POS) operators to limit their operations to commercial zones.

Umar Shuaibu, coordinator of the Abuja Metropolitan Management Council (AMMC), issued the directive on Wednesday.

Shuaibu said the administration would not allow operators to illegitimately occupy sensitive areas that are not designated for commercial purposes.

He said the indiscriminate operations of POS merchants were posing a threat to security in the country’s capital and would no longer be tolerated.

AMMC coordinator explained that the Abuja master plan was systemically structured to depict a full-time residential neighbourhood concept devoid of any commercial activity.

“We have neighborhood centres and city centres, all of these centres have commercial areas, so whatever someone needs within the neighbourhood provided is within the neighbourhood centres is available, no need to take over the street, that is how the master plan was designed,” Shuaibu said.

“Financial services are brought closer to the people because of the CBN cashless policy that is why we have POS operators, let there be sanity.

“However, there are challenges, the point of sale operators do not operate in the areas that they are supposed to operate, according to the provision of the master plan.“

Shuaibu said POS operators would now be concentrated in commercial hubs like plazas, markets, supermarkets, and gas stations.

He advised the operators to liaise with owners of the locations to ply their trade at their premises.

“Going forward, all operators must shift to commercial locations,” he said.

“This will assist in reducing insecurity.”