Remita Selected Based on Merit, Says CBN; Reps Question FIRS

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) 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.

The Director of Banking Services, Hamisu Abdullahi, made this assertion during a hearing with the House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee on March 28th, 2024.

The hearing, presided over by Bamidele Salaam, Chairman of the House Committee on Public Accounts, aimed to ensure transparency and accountability in the federation’s revenue.

The CBN was directed to provide an electronic platform that would facilitate payments on behalf of MDAs to beneficiaries accounts in the commercial banks.

According to Abdullahi, “The 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.”

Salawu Zubairu, the former Director of the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF), had previously stated that Remita was chosen as the preferred platform to manage the Treasury Single Account (TSA) after a rigorous evaluation process that included other candidates like the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS).

The Managing Director of Remita Payment Services Limited, Mr. ‘Deremi Atanda, also emphasized the previous system’s shortcomings and how the TSA initiative has streamlined government processes.

He stated that the TSA is designed to create a single window through which all inflows and outflows of government can be monitored in real-time for transparency and accountability.

The TSA has been instrumental in uncovering and removing approximately 70,000 non-existent employees from the civil service payroll, resulting in savings of at least N220 billion through the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

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, to prevent the diversion of the federal government’s foreign exchange revenues into the hands of unscrupulous entities.

The merit-based selection of Remita by the CBN, as well as the ongoing investigation by the House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee, underscores the importance of transparency and accountability in Nigeria’s economic reform and financial stability.