The Director of Banking Services, Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) Mr Hamisu Abdullahi, has highlighted the merit-based selection of Remita to provide an electronic platform essential for facilitating payments from Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) to beneficiary accounts across commercial banks.
He said this when officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria appeared before the House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee to respond to queries about leakages through the Remita platform.
According to him “The CBN was directed to provide an electronic platform that would facilitate payments on behalf of MDAs to beneficiaries accounts in the commercial banks.”
“CBN deemed it fit to source for an alternative way of doing this and engaged two companies and out of the two, Remita, was selected based on merit and based on the fact they had been rendering similar services to commercial banks.”
The Managing Director of Remita Payment Services Limited, Mr. ‘Deremi Atanda also underscored the importance of incorporating all federal government agencies within the Treasury Single Account (TSA) framework to bolster accountability and transparency.
He said the TSA initiative was designed to create a single window through which all inflows and outflows of government can be monitored in real-time for transparency and accountability and especially for the effective management of the government’s cash assets.
“However, some MDAs are operating outside TSA. The investigations have unravelled that some MDAs are only partially complying with the TSA Revenue policy while some are in absolute breach,” he said.
The Nigeria Customs Service, Immigration, Federal Medical Centres, FRSC, and Nigeria Railway Corporation, were identified as entities not fully adhering to the TSA guidelines.
He further explained how the government can track and account for every single transaction through a unique Remita Retrieval Reference (RRR) code assigned to each revenue inflow.
“It allows the government to identify the receiving MDA, the destination account, the date and time of the transaction, the purpose of the payment, and the name of the payer. The RRR has become the ultimate reconciliation reference point for all payers, banks, and MDAs involved in government revenue collection.”
As Nigeria continues its march towards economic stability, some government forex revenue collections still occur outside the TSA framework. Mr. Atanda highlighted the importance of adhering to the TSA’s original intent of consolidating all government inflows and outflows, regardless of currency.
This is vital to prevent the diversion of the federal government’s foreign exchange revenues into the hands of unscrupulous entities.
“At a time when the Nigerian Government is seeking ways to generate Forex and prevent the devaluation of the Naira amid increased demand for the US Dollar, allowing such diversions is inadvisable,” he stated.
Chairman of the Committee said there is a House resolution that has mandated the PAC to investigate an allegation concerning revenue leakages through Remita platform as well as none adherence to service level agreements between parties on the Remita gateway platform.
