FG Generated N34.311tn Revenue via REMITA Platform in Seven Years

Committee summons Edun, Cardoso, AGF over agreement signed with solution provider

The sum of N34.311 trillion revenue was generated through the REMITA platform into the federation account between 2015 and 2022, Managing Director/CEO of REMITA, Mr. 'Deremi Atanda has disclosed.

Atanda, said this known during the investigative hearing on, "alleged revenue leakages through REMITA platform and non-compliance substantively with standard operating procedure and other allied service agreement," held by the House Committee on Public Accounts, which was chaired by Hon. Bamidele Salam.

The Committee resolved to invite the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Yemi Cardoso, to appear in person to give account of the roles played by each of the institutions in the contract agreement and ascertain the veracity of the agreement signed between Central Bank and Systemspec/REMITA on the revenue collection.

According to the documents presented to the Committee, instead of N343.109 billion fee income due at contracted rate of one percent flat which the stakeholders are entitled to (against the conventional five to seven percent fee) according to the agreement signed in 2015, the sum of N23.922 billion actual fee income was applied.

According to the 2018 circular on the chargeable fees guidelines on e-collection, the sharing formula showed that all the stakeholders were to share the sum of N150 per transaction: banks – 33 per cent, CBN – 11 per cent, NIBBS - 10.5 per cent, Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (oAGF) - 2.5 per cent, while REMITA and other stakeholders including card issuers are entitled to get 43 per cent of the chargeable fees.

While correcting the impression that REMITA imposed additional fee apart from the approved N150 which represents 10 cents at current exchange rate on the revenue generating MDAs, Atanda disclosed that the REMITA payment gateway platform provides additional technology services to the Federation at no cost, despite pay in foreign exchange for hosting the platform on cloud based platform.