Mr. ‘Deremi Atanda, managing director/CEO of REMITA, , has said that the platform generated N34.311 trillion into the Federation Account between 2015 and 2022.
He made the disclosure during the investigative hearing on ‘alleged revenue leakages through REMITA platform and non-compliance substantively with standard operating procedures and other allied service agreement’, by the Hon. Bamidele Salam-led House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts Wednesday.
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.
Based on the 2018 circular on the chargeable fees guidelines on e-collection, the sharing formular showed that all the stakeholders are to share the sum of N150 per transaction – Banks 33%, CBN – 11%, NIBBS – 10.5%, office of Accountant General of the Federation (oAGF) gets 2.5%, while REMITA and other stakeholders including card issuers are entitled to 43% of the chargeable fees.
While dismissing insinuation that REMITA imposed additional fee apart from the approved N150 (which represents 10 cents at current exchange rate) on the revenue generating MDAs, Mr. Atanda stated 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 systems.
He said the sum of N1.5 trillion was remitted through the platform in 2015, N2.8 trillion in 2016, N3.7 trillion in 2017, N4.6 trillion in 2018, N4.6 trillion in 2019, N4.2 trillion in 2020 being COVID year, N6 trillion in 2021 while N6.8 trillion was realized in 2022 fiscal year, respectively.
Responding to question on the contract signed with Remita, Accountant General of the Federation who was represented by Mr. Mohammed Bello, director Single Treasury, disclosed that the 2.5% fee accrued to oAGF goes directly into Federal Government’s account, not OAGF’s account, adding that efforts are ongoing to capture revenue being paid through foreign exchange into revenue payment platform.
Salam, chairman of the committee, underscored the need for physical appearance of the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, CBN Governor and Accountant General of the Federation before the Committee, on Tuesday, 20th February, 2024.
