Following the alarm raised recently by Dino Melaye, a senator representing Kogi West, concerning the management of the Treasury Single Account [TSA], and the software company that owns the Remita platform; SystemSpecs, investigations have revealed that Melaye’s allegations were untrue.
On the accusation that Remita is milking the country by charging 1% transaction fee, a letter issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria [CBN] on December 17, 2013 and circulated to all Deposit Money Banks have debunked that statement.
Titled “Commencement of Federal Government independent revenue collection under the Treasury Single Account [TSA] initiative” the CBN stated in the communication that “a fee of 1% of funds collected is payable, and this would be shared by solution provider and participating banks”.
Further investigations showed that the CBN, before it selected Remita as its gateway, examined existing local and foreign infrastructures before its endorsement and choice of the platform. The CBN approached NIBSS; a company owned by all Nigeria banks; including the CBN, the apex bank also reviewed the suitability of RTGS provided by CMA a foreign software house, and was convinced about its unsuitability before SystemSpecs’ Remita was considered.
According to facts available online and via the company website, Remita is a payment platform and not a company as many including the Kogi Senator would want the upper chambers to believe.
Media reports also claimed that SystemSpecs; owner of Remita-the CBN licensed payment gateway has been in existence for about 23years while Remita has been holding sway in the electronic payments space for about 10 years- long before the advent of TSA.
Investigations revealed that during evaluation, the CBN’s requirement-which was an integrated platform that connect to the banks and CBN’s platform, appeared beyond the reach of locally available solution.
Nevertheless, to make the selection process transparent, the CBN invited other companies to participate in the bidding as was the required procedure. CBN sources said Remita was offered the TSA project because of its unique capabilities to deliver on the requirement.
Investigations further revealed that the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation [OAGF] and the World Bank supported the project and its evaluation. “After due diligence, the contract was given to Systemspecs to deploy Remita as the CBN TSA Payment Gateway”, the CBN source said.
Recall that Melaye told the senate that Remita is a collection agent. The CBN source debunked this by saying “TSA is not just about collections, but payment and collection. The payment component started since January 2012 with little or no resistance. However, Collections which will have greatest impact on the economy by curbing corruption and blocking leakages was frustrated and repeatedly delayed until the new administration came in and insisted it must take off”.
