Many Point of Sale, POS, operators across the country are lamenting over their inability to access funds in their POS wallets through ITEX app.
Founded in 2005, ITEX Integrated Services Limited is a financial Technology company that manages POS terminals.
The operators who use the ITEX POS terminals told DAILY NIGERIAN that for almost a week, the company app had been inaccessible for cash transfers and other features.
They added that the lackadaisical attitude of the company to provide a reasonable explanation was causing panic and suspicion among ITEX users.
The operators, who are mostly young Nigerians, said they have invested their life savings into the business, which has been serving as their means of livelihood before the its sudden crash.
One of the victims who spoke to this newspaper disclosed that he was unable to move funds from his terminal to his personal account, fearing that he has fallen victim to fraudsters.
Explaining how the ITEX POS works, Babangida Shuaibu, who has a POS stand in Kano, said, “When you go to a POS to withdraw using your ATM card, the debits go to the POS company while the POS attendant gives you cash.
“And because the POS company does not have ATM cards, these funds are accumulated in the POS company account, then we use the company app to transfer funds from our wallets to our personal bank accounts; this is the life cycle of the POS business.
“I have invested 650,000 in ITEX POS business and now the company for about a week is not allowing us to transfer our fund. Today all our accounts are disabled.
“We contacted customer service, and they said they’re on unscheduled maintenance; just yesterday, they told me they’re working on security issues. Different words.
“Our business partner in Lagos went to their office and told us they had locked the door for 7 days.”
Another operator, Odunayo Ajayi, who is based in Lagos and invested 364,000, stated, “On 7th of September I tried sending money from payvice wallet to my account, I got a response “transaction unavailable”. I thought it was a temporary problem so I left it and move to other things. Since other transactions were going through but to my surprise I got the same response the following day.
“I put a call through one of their staff Oladimeji the third day and he told me that it was a general issue that they were working on it.
“I asked him till when his response showed there was no solution in sight.”
Narrating her experience, another Itex POS user simply identified as Abigail said, “I received a message on Wednesday that there’s a downtime on transfer, which I actually thought would be rectified before daybreak.
“But on Thursday, I couldn’t transfer and even still withdraw for a customer using the terminal thinking it won’t take time before it will be rectified.
“But till now, making about 5 days now, I can’t transfer, that is moving the money out of my wallet.”
Victoria Collins also said she had invested her children’s school fees, amounting to 317,000 into the business with the hope that the money would appreciate, but unfortunately her investment is hanging in the balance.
The operators, therefore, appealed to the government and general public to come to their aid by locating and sanctioning the owners of the business before they would run away with their money.
“We’re appealing to the government and public as well as legal practitioners to come to our rescue,” they pleaded.
When contacted for comment on the situation, an official of the company, Oladimeji Ore, told DAILY NIGERIAN that the problem was caused by technical hitches the company was currently experiencing.
He however assured that the technical team was working hard to restore all the features, including the transfer bar.
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