Contrary to the alarm raised by the
Senate over the alleged illegality and exorbitant commission charged for
the deployment of Remita, an e-payment software used for the transfer
of Federal Government’s funds from financial institutions into a single
treasury account (TSA), PREMIUM TIMES can authoritatively report that
the use of the software is not only legal but also represents a drastic
cut of the commission previously charged by banks for collection of
government revenues.
Also, findings reveal that the
commission collected by SystemSpecs, the owners/developers of Remita, is
nowhere near the N25billion Dino Melaye (APC, Kogi West) alleged to
have been collected by the firm.
It was Mr. Melaye who originally moved the motion on the Senate floor for the payment to be investigated.
Last Wednesday, following Mr. Melaye’s
motion, the senate ordered its committee on finance and public accounts
to immediately commence an investigation into the use of Remita (which
it erroneously described as an e-collection agent) for remitting
government funds into the TSA, and its alleged collection of N25 billion
commission being one per cent of the alleged N2.5 trillion it remitted
into the TSA.
Mr. Melaye had argued that the use of
Remita was a violation of Section 162(1) of the constitution, which
stated that “the federation shall maintain a special account to be
called the federation account into which all revenues collected by the
government of the federation except the proceeds from the personal
income tax of the personnel of the Armed Forces of the Federation, the
Nigeria Police Force, the ministry or department of government charged
with foreign affairs and the residents of the FCT, Abuja”.
Mr. Melaye further stated that the
Central Bank of Nigeria could only appoint a registered bank as an agent
for collecting and disbursing the funds.
He said that since Remita was not a
bank, its appointment as a collection agent was in violation of the CBN
Act and the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2007.
According to him, Remita collected N25 billion “for doing nothing.”
However, documents, including the
service agreement between SystemSpecs and CBN, correspondence between
the company and the office of the Accountant General/ CBN as well as a
letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, seen by PREMIUM TIMES, show that
not only was the commission charged backed by law, it is shared by the
company, commercial banks and the CBN.
Although the commission is nowhere near
the exaggerated N25 billion touted by Mr. Melaye, the one per cent
charge also represents a drastic reduction from between the two per cent
and 46 per cent commission charged by commercial banks in some
instances for collecting government revenues.
In a telephone interview with PREMIUM
TIMES, the CBN Director for public communications, Ibrahim Muazu,
dismissed the amount quoted on the floor of the senate as “completely
misleading.”
“That is false. That is false,” he repeated for emphasis.
“It is grossly exaggerated. We are
talking of one per cent. What is one per cent of the money? Have we
collected up to a trillion? That is a completely misleading information.
Even at the beginning of the TSA the estimation of all the movement of
federal government funds into the account is N1.2 trillion,” he added.
When asked to tell the total amount
moved into the TSA, Mr Muazu said: “I cannot give you the exact amount
now but I know it is far, far, far lower than N2.5 trillion.”
The Agreement
According to the service agreement
between the parties, signed by Eunice Ikekhuah and Aderemi Atanda of
SystemSpecs on December 4, 2013, and H.M Yusuf and R.A Olaniyan of the
CBN on December 11, 2013, Systemspecs and the CBN agreed to deploy
Remita, a T24 banking application, for executing payment instructions
and collection of government revenue.
Apart from the collection of revenue,
Remita is also used for payment of salaries, payment of taxes, payment
of pension, payroll processing biometric verification, among other uses.
In a letter dated November 6, 2015, to
Mr. Buhari, SystemSpecs explained that “all commercial banks and over
400 Micro Finance Banks in Nigeria” are connected to the software. The
company also explained that 705 Ministries, Departments and Agencies
(MDA) are currently using the software as payment and collection
platform.
So, contrary to Mr Melaye’s argument in
the senate, Remita is indeed a software that facilitates the payment of
government revenue from financial institutions to a TSA in the CBN and
not a revenue collection agent.
Also, contrary to Mr. Melaye’s
submission, the entire one per cent commission does not go to
SystemSpecs. The commission is shared by the CBN, commercial banks, and
the CBN.
“A tariff of 1% of the funds collected
shall be charged for the government revenue collections: i. Platform
Owner/SystemSpecs: 50%, ii. Collecting Agents/DMBs (banks): 40%, iii.
Introducer? CBN: 10%,” the agreement reads.
SystemSpecs further explained that at a
seminar organised by the CBN and the Office of the Accountant General of
the Federation (OAGF) May27-28, 2013, it actually proposed a commission
of 1.5 per cent, It explained that commercial banks actually proposed 5
per cent, while a committee set up by the CBN and the OAGF proposed 2.5
per cent.
It explained that it was the then
Accountant-General of the Federation that actually overruled all the
suggested commission and reduced it to one per cent.
However, the company said it was
surprised to receive a letter from the CBN, signed by Dipo Fatokun,
Director, Banking and Payments System Department, on October 27, 2015,
directing it to refund all charges it collected from MDAs for
implementation of the TSA.
“I have been directed to inform you that
you should refund all charges (1% cost of collection) made into the
MDAs accounts as a result of the implementation of the TSA,” the letter
reads.
“The total amount should be credited into the account mentioned below:
“FGN Revenue e-Collection Pool Account at the Central Bank of Nigeria Account Number: 0020054161043
“Since the cost of the collection must
have been shared by all the stakeholders, you are hereby required to
also provide a schedule of the total amount collected and the portion
that was shared to each of the three participants. The schedule should
be prepared on month by month basis, from the commencement of the TSA
implementation in March 2015, to date. We will recover the share to the
CBN and the DMBs,” the letter explains.
SystemSpecs explained that after the
kick off of the TSA, following a deadline announced by Mr Buhari, the
OAGF invited it for a meeting where it was told that following the
enlarged scope of the TSA, the government wanted to review the charges.
“We wrote to the CBN to give a brief on
the meeting with OAGF and said inter-alia that, while on our part,
SystemSpecs is not averse to a review of the existing transaction fee to
a figure that is agreeable to all parties, we would however advise of
the need to carry along the DMBs as you will recall that the current
fees were agreed with the banks and communicated by CBN via a circular
in December 2013,” the firm stated in a letter to the CBN governor.
Reduction of cost
In the same letter to the CBN Governor,
SystemSpecs further explained that the one per cent charge actually
represents a drastic reduction of the amount the Federal Government had
to pay for the collection of its revenue before the implementation of
the TSA.
“Your Excellency will recall that one of
the primary focus of the TSA project is to retrieve funds from the
banks who were indirectly lending the government money back to
government at about 15%. Hidden cost to government? Arguably 15%.
“Remita provided a technology to empower
government retrieve her funds immediately customers pay at Deposit
Money Banks. No overnight stay at any bank. Is 1% to be shared by all
parties really too high to pay for such a service?”
For instance, the firm explained, banks
charge as high as 46 per cent for National Open University (NOUN)
charges, nine per cent for Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board
(JAMB) fees, and six per cent on Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC)
National Drivers’ License charges.
Thus in its letter to the President,
SystemSpecs appealed for the return of its fees and those earned by the
partner banks seized by the CBN.
Mr. Muazu corroborated SystemSpecs narratives during the telephone chat with PREMIUM TIMES.
“The information you are given is in
line with the agreement dating back to 2011. That is a fact. They
started it actually when the TSA came up. The one per cent was, yes,
agreed at that time. But now with the issue at hand everything needs to
be reviewed and agreed.
“But truly the banks, the CBN and
themselves are stakeholders. What is it that we are talking about? It is
the software or the platform. You can’t do everything free for doing
any business. The banks that are doing the e-collection they pursue
agencies and other sources of revenue. Not just taking the value. So it
is actually an arrangement for the service to be provided. That software
that is being used by the platform has to be maintained apart from the
initial design,” he said.
He said the CBN asked SysytemSpecs to
return the commission already collected to enable it renegotiate the
terms of the contract.
“Now we are having a new arrangement.
It’s not just e-collection. Central bank is now in charge of government
revenue. So the old arrangement cannot continue. So when the issue
started the central bank gave the order and the money were all paid back
to the government.
“Look at it this way, you have a product that you are allowing someone to use, it can’t be free,” he said.
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