Godwin Anyebe

In Nigeria, trust is a goner, a thing of the past, it is an anachronism. Corruption is real and its perception is very visible. Citizens hold every occupier of public space in suspicion. No action is ever regarded to be in public interest. And citizens are right! Ordinary citizens or modest financial standing become instant billionaires once they take public office. And of course, those who are no longer in public space are well aware of how it is done inside government and therefore never willing to give any benefit of the doubt because they were active participants.

Senator representing Kogi West constituency, Dino Melaye recently raised the alarm when he raised a motion asking for legislative enquiry into allegations that a certain private company Remita was taking a N25 billion daily commission from the transfer of funds into the treasury Single Account mandated by President Muhammadu Buhari. In a motion co-sponsored by 35 senators, Dino Melaye, had alleged that there were underhand practices in the management of the TSA. He observed that “in the course of the operations of the TSA, the federal government on September 15 mopped up the sum of N2.5 trillion through its e-collection agent, Remita, which charges one percent of all money passing through it, the implication of which one percent of the N2.5tr mopped up on September 15 alone amounted to N25bn largesse to Remita for doing nothing”.

In a country where at least 27 of 36 state governments have not been able to pay salaries of staff regularly and where at least 70 percent of population is living in abject poverty, hell was let loose. The matter became more worrisome considering that since its inauguration on May 29, Buhari has made ceaseless complaints about how operatives of past administrations looted the country massively. Opposition politicians also accused the federal government of deploying the huge alleged largesse to sponsor elections in Kogi and Bayelsa states currently controlled by the Peoples Democratic Party.

When the news broke, the initial reaction of many was …again? As it sank however, reality began to sink that Remita actually is software payment platform that many ordinary Nigerians and corporations have used in business transactions.

Meanwhile, the questions stakeholders are asking  among others things are; who are behind Remit?; when was it founded?; is it registered?; What are its lines of business?; who are its clients?; when did the idea of TSA booked?; which government approved it?; how did Remit win the contract?; how much commission was actually charged?; how much has been transferred to TSA in all?; is it normal for tech/ict companies to make so much money?

The Senate immediately ordered its joint Committee on Finance, Banking and Other Financial Institutions and Public Accounts to probe the allegation that the e-Collection agent, Remita, had been paid N25 billion, being the one per cent commission it charged for the transfer of N2.5 trillion of federal government funds to the Treasury Savings Account (TSA) while asking that FGN stop using Remita for the TSA remittances.

There speculations that Remita is owned by a leader of the All Progressives Party (APC) and that Remita is an abbreviation of the name of the politician and his wife. The issue brought back memories of when there was speculation that a petroleum product marketing company that was privatised was purchased by a former president of the country and that the new name which the company took was the abbreviation of the leader’s first and second names.

Investigations by Economic Confidential however, showed that Remita is an electronic courier service owned by SystemSpecs that rides on secured e-payment platforms to deliver funds to bank accounts and associated schedules to relevant bodies in pre-specified formats. SystemSpecs is a software company.

Check from Economic Confidential has it that SystemSpecs has its Corporate Headquarters at on the 4th – 8th Floor, 136 Lewis Street, Lagos, Nigeria with a branch on 3rd Floor, Right Wing, Labour House, Central Business District, Abuja. It was established in 1991 and its CEO has been Mr. John Tani Obaro, with present clientele allegedly spread across Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Equatorial Guinea, among others. Chairman Board of Directors is Dr. Christopher Kolade, a veteran broadcaster and former Chairman of SureP. Other directors include Emmanuel Ocholi, Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, Deremi Atanda.  Dr. Emmanuel Eze is executive director while Managing Director is.

Economic Confidential gathered that sometime in February, the Central Bank of Nigeria issued a circular directing all deposit money banks to implement the utilise the Remita e-Collection Platform for remittances into the TSA. This marked the beginning of the full implementation of Treasury Single Account (TSA) system in Nigeria.

The history of TSA in Nigeria predates the current administration that was inaugurated by the end of May this year. Former President Goodluck Jonathan’s government rolled out the TSA idea and contracted SystemSpecs for the use of its Remita platform technology, which incidentally an indigenous e-payment platform to help mop up all government funds into a Single Treasury Account (TSA). Remita has been in use since 2014.

The agreement President Goodluck Jonathan signed with Systemspecs was that the company will retain 1% of whatever is collected and paid into the TSA as commission.

Because of the partial or almost total noncompliance by MDAs, the volume of funds coming into the TSA under Jonathan was very small and by implication the 1% commission retained was so insignificant that it did not attract public interest. Compliance was low.

However the scenario changed with the coming of Buhari and his insistence on full compliance by all MDAs. Within a short span of three months, Buhari was able to achieve compliance of over 500 of the 700+ MDAs. This automatically increased the money coming in via Remita and by implication, the 1% commission retained by the firm also increased exponentially.

A commentator lamented that “it is so unfortunate that our leaders are taking undue advantage of our ignorance in this clime to actualize their selfish ambition.”

According to him, “irrespective of the nomenclature giving to the issue at stake, a discerning mind should know that Nigerian first class politicians are in charge of this corrupt practice. What they do is to set up a firm be it financial, construction, or whatever, with a singular intention of siphoning public funds which is bad.”

While reacting to whether it is good for an ICT firm to make such amount of money in a day or not, a public affairs analyst, Daniel Otuagha told Economic Confidential that, “to make such an amount in a day in Nigeria where people are dying of poverty is uncalled for. We must understand something; an ordinary man cannot come up with an idea and expect the government to grant him audience except the people at corridor of power will have their own share of the money. Therefore, the top guys in politics will prefer to establish a firm and have some people front for them in order to embezzle fund.” On the way forward, he suggested that, “if the government wants to curtail such happening where one person will be making huge amount of money at the expense of others, the government should ensure that, a situation where more than one firm will come for pitching, and the best without any political affiliation should emerged.” In all of this, and in the light of the volume of funds coming into TSA currently, he called for review of the contract to drive down the percentage commission.  “More importantly, this government is driven by a zero tolerance for corruption mantra; therefore, the president should not allow people around him to bring his name into disrepute, he stated.