POS is one of the most popular work in Benin city right now. I know you are curious about how to start a pos business in Benin city.
You are actually in the right place to get first hand knowledge of pos business and get acquainted with the business.
POS means Point Of Sale.
POS is basically a device to accept payment for goods or services.
However, we have adopted the use of Pos machines for agency banking or what we call Pos Business in our local parlance.
Agency banking or Pos Business was introduced by CBN in Nigeria to service the unbanked and under banked, this model was originally copied from Kenya.
POS Handling
Pos are to be handled with care.
Pos can only be repaired by the issuer of the terminal.
Pos are not to be tempered by an agent or phone repairer or a laptop repairer.
How To Start Pos Business
To start Pos Business in Benin currently starts with;
1. Basic accounting knowledge on record keeping; where one doesn’t have this skill he can learn from an existing pos agent or better still someone into the business already.
A pos agent is mandated to keep transaction records daily, this record helps to know profit and loss. It helps to detect exactly where a loss can come from or how it came about.
Just like every business, the purpose is to make profit hence it’s very important and necessary to keep transaction records.
This transaction record in a book also helps in issue resolution with a customer, it help in issue resolution with customers bank and or the acquiring pos company.
For someone who may find it difficult approaching an existing pos agent, a sample of how to keep this record is provided below
From the sample above, the first thing to record is
Date of business day, followed underneath is
Account balance: Total amount inside your pos
Cash at hand: Total cash available to transact with
First total: this is addition of account balance and cash at hand you started business with
SN: serial number
Name : customers name
Phone number: customers phone number
Transaction type : withdrawal, transfer, airtime, bill payment etc
Amount : amount of transaction
Account number : if it’s a transfer transaction the account number transferred to
Bank : the bank you transferred money to
Account balance 2: the current pos account balance after a transaction
Cash at hand 2: the current cash at hand after a transaction
Commission: charges you charged the customer for a particular transaction.
Below is a sample of record book of transactions for the business day.. profit made etc
2. After understanding how to keep a record book, the next thing to do is locate especially a very busy place with people always present and or places far from banks.
Example of a busy location include but not only a motor park, motorcycle park, Keke park, market places etc
3. After getting a viable location, approach a carpenter or a welder to construct a kiosk or caravan.
4. Get a pos machine; You can get a pos machine in Benin from the banks or a fintech company..
POS are usually given on lease only few Fintech companies give pos on outright purchase.
5. Register with the Association of mobile money and bank agents in Nigeria (AMMBAN).
The association issues a license to run the pos business.
Challenges in the business
People have usually assumed a failed transaction is caused by the pos itself whereas; There are different bodies that could affect a pos transaction..
i. sim network: This is the sim network inside the pos
ii. bank network: This is the card holders bank network downtime
iii. atm card issuer: visa, master and verve.. Any of them could have a downtime
iv. nibss or switch company: Nigeria inter-bank settlement system could have their own downtime
v. pos network: the pos company server could be having a downtime
solutions
1. Get a sim card with the best service in the particular location of business.
Get an alternative sim network Incase one is down.