For business people wanting to accept card payments, here is how to get a POS for your business.
What is a POS terminal or a POS machine?
First of all, a POS terminal (point of sale terminal) is a portable device that allows you as a retailer or merchant collect payment from your customers using only their bank cards. So this means that as a business owner, instead of customers saying “Sorry, I don’t have cash today – I will come tomorrow”, you can now tell them “don’t come tomorrow, you can pay me now with POS”. All they have to do is to check and verify the amount on the screen, enter their PIN number and that’s it.
You also get more sales because you can now cater to two types of customers – those paying by card and those paying with cash. Your previous customers remember you easily once you are able to offer them a POS where others have failed to do so.
Various banks and institutions offer this service, and I have covered them here. However, for this post, I will be concentrating on GTBank.
1. You will need a Business Current Account. You can download a brochure here to see what the requirements are. If the link doesn’t work, here is a back up copy: sme brochure-web
2. You then need to either e-mail sme@gtbank.com, go to your branch or speak to your account officer. You should get a specific POS request form as well as an agreement document to sign.
3. Following all checks and approval of the account, you should receive your POS in about 14 days, delivered to your business address. Please note that POS terminals are offered for free, however for each payment you accept, a fee of 0.75% is deducted for the services provided which includes routine free maintenance of the units.
Hope this helps.
