The House of Representatives has mandated its Committee on Public Accounts to conduct an investigation into revenue leakages occurring through the Remita platform.
This decision, borne out of concerns regarding non-compliance by revenue-generating government agencies, was reached during a session on Wednesday.
The motion titled “Call to Investigate Revenue Leakages and Non-Remittance of Revenues Generated through the Remita Platform” was presented by Rep. Jeremiah Umaru and Rep. Jafaru Gambo. Rep. Umaru emphasized that Nigeria faces a revenue issue rather than an expenditure problem.
He highlighted Remita, a financial service platform managed by SystemSpecs, as instrumental in the Treasury Single Account (TSA) of the Federal government since its full adoption in 2015. Despite processing over N8.7 trillion through the platform, concerns arise regarding the proliferation of multiple sub-accounts by government entities, counteracting the objectives of the TSA policy.
READ ALSO : Burna Boy claims No. 1 spot on billboard’s 2023 U.S. Afrobeats artists chart
Explaining further, Rep. Umaru mentioned that the system, while enhancing a cashless economy, transparency, and asset tracking, has not completely curbed financial leakages due to the proliferation of CBN sub-accounts. He raised alarm over the 1% commission charged on funds collected via the platform, a share distributed between SystemSpecs, deposit money banks, and the Central Bank of Nigeria, expressing alarm at this sharing ratio (50:40:10) as unacceptable.
The lawmaker expressed worries about the ongoing revenue leakages, the consequent shortfall in government revenue, and its impact on meeting citizens’ demands for governance and infrastructure development. He also flagged the habit of delay in remitting revenues collected by deposit money banks to the Central Bank of Nigeria as a cause for concern.
The investigation is intended to scrutinize revenue leakages, non-compliance with standard operating procedures, and service level agreements signed among various stakeholders. The House aims to address these issues to ensure effective revenue management for governmental purposes.
