‘It’s unacceptable’ — reps to probe revenue ‘leakages’ on Remita platform

The house of representatives has resolved to investigate alleged revenue leakages through the Remita platform.

The green chamber passed the resolution during the plenary session on Wednesday after the adoption of a motion jointly sponsored by Jeremiah Umaru and Jafaru Gambo, lawmakers, from Nasarawa and Bauchi, respectively.

Remita is an online payment service provider owned by SystemSpecs, a financial services company.

The platform is used by federal government agencies to remit revenue into the treasury single account (TSA).

While moving the motion, Umaru, the lead sponsor, said while the TSA has “created a cashless economy, transparency and effective tracking of cash assets with attendant accountability”, it has not “fully” blocked leakages and abuses.

He said one percent of the funds collected is “charged as commission for making use of the platform and shared among SystemSpecs (owner), deposit money banks (processor) and Central Bank of Nigeria (CB)(license issuer) in the ratio of 50:40:10, respectively”.

“This is alarming and unacceptable,” he said.

The legislator claimed that despite the adoption and utilisation of the Remita platform, the “rate of revenue leakages is worrisome apart from non-compliance substantively with standard operating procedures and other allied service level agreements signed by parties”.

“If this scenario continues unabated, the government will continue to experience a revenue shortfall and this will prevent the government from meeting the rising demand for good governance and infrastructural development from citizens,” he said. 

“A larger percentage of deposit money banks has formed the habit of delay in on-ward remittance or sweeping of revenues collected to Central Bank of Nigeria.”

The motion was adopted when it was put to a voice vote by Tajudeen Abbas, speaker of the house.

The house asked the committee on public accounts to investigate the revenue leakages through the Remita platform and non-compliance with “standard operating procedures and other allied service level agreements signed among deposit money banks, office of the accountant-general, Systemspec, Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) and the CBN and report back in six months for further legislative action.