Nigeria’s House of Representatives on Wednesday ordered Remita, a financial technology firm handling public finance payments, to immediately refund a total of N182.77 billion it withheld from the Treasury Single Account (TSA) since 2015 to the Federal Government.
The lawmakers’ order was sequel to a forensic audit conducted on the payment system over the years and submission of an investigative report by consulting firm, Seyi Katola & Company (Chartered Accountants)., which uncovered the illegal withholding of the huge sum by the firm.
The Chairman of House of Representatives’ Public Accounts Committee, Hon. Bamidele Salam, during a meeting of the committee in Abuja, said the resolution at the meeting was based on evidence submitted by the Consultant, as well as documents provided by SystemSpecs/Remita and other stakeholders within the TSA ecosystem.
The managing partner of the consulting firm, Dr. Adewale Oyebamiji, presented the breakdown of the liabilities, which reflected that SystemSpecs was responsible for N3.42 billion in under-refunded transaction processing fees, N101.85 million in unpaid acquirer fees, and N179.25 billion in unremitted collections.
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The committee’s report on the total payable by Remita for the first regime, calculated at the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Monetary Policy Rate of 27.25% indicated that “Under-Refund of Transaction processing fee; Amount Refundable – N993m, interest charges – N2.42bn, totalling N3.42bn.”
A further analysis of the audited accounts report showed that non-payment of the acquirer fee had a refundable amount of N29.60 million, interest charges of N72.25 billion, both totalling N101.85 million.
Also, in non-remittance of collection, Remita was mandated by the committee to refund N54.24 billion with interest charges of N125 billion, totalling N179 billion.
A statement issued by the media unit of the committee on the audit report’s findings partly reads: “The committee recommends that SystemSpecs Ltd be compelled to refund the total sum of N182.77bn to the Federal Government Asset Recovery Account domiciled at the Central Bank of Nigeria, account number: 0020054161191.”
While confirming that some deposit money banks (DMBs) have already complied with similar repayment orders by it on the public finance findings, the committee charged other value chain service providers in the TSA which were yet to comply to immediately do so to avoid sanctions.
The committee commended the forensic audit consultants for a thorough job, noting that the efforts will support transparency and strengthens Nigeria’s fiscal accountability framework.
It would be recalled that the House of Representatives had in 2024 mandated the public accounts committee to investigate revenue leakages and non-remittance of funds by Ministries, Departments, and Agencies through Remita with a view to ensuring that payments through the platform is transparent and complied with public finance guidelines.
