Reps query CBN, banks, FIRS, others over N15bn Remita transactions

The House of Representatives has berated the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), commercial banks and other financial institutions over alleged questionable transactions and remittances over the Remita platform.

Chairman of the House Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Bamidele Salam, while speaking at the resumed investigative hearing of the committee on Thursday, also queried the payment of N15bn to Remita from the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) from 2016 to 2018.

He described it as questionable because the OAGF paid the money without agreement or contract.

In his submission, the Director Banking Services (CBN), Ahmed Abdullahi, said the apex bank sourced an alternative way of remitting revenue, adding that Remita and System Spec were selected because they had been rendering similar services to banks.

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Similarly, the Chief Accountant, TSA Department, who represented the Accountant General for the Federation, Oyewole Adewale, said the CBN refused to respond to letters requesting it to reconcile the revenue accrued to the country through TSA.

On his part, the Director, Remita Payment Services Ltd, Aderemi Atanda, while reading the summary of the TSA collection record, said that 10, 20 and 50 per cent were shared among CBN, commercial banks and Remita respectively, noting that the collections were usually not static, that they varied.