Reps panel queries banks over N11.632trn FG revenue

Tamarauemi Ebimini

The House of Representatives has queried Access Bank, Citi Bank, Ecobank and Fidelity Bank over N11.632 trillion revenue collected on behalf of the federal government through the REMITA platform between 2015 and 2022.

Chairman, House Committee on Public Accounts, Bamidele Salam, issued the query at the resumed investigative hearing on ‘alleged revenue leakages through REMITA platform in Abuja.

The investigation also covered the non-compliance with standard operating procedure and other allied service agreements.

The committee demanded all the agreements signed between all the participating domestic banks and Systemspec/REMITA during the period under review.

According to the records obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Access Bank collected a total sum of N2.661 trillion for 3,502,486 transactions between 2015 and 2022.

According to Access Bank records submitted to the Committee, a total sum of N2,660,974,062,151.62 was collected as revenue for the period under review.

Also, the sum of N858,734,455.99 fee was earned for the service rendered.

On its part, CitiBank collected the sum of N643,427,225,110.96 between 2016 and 2022.

According to a CitiBank record submitted to the committee, the sum of N2,435,932.34 fee was earned for a total of N34,656,636,415.24 transactions carried out in 2016.

Also, N9,134,312.05 fee was earned for a total of N61,023,589,404.01 transactions carried out in 2018.

The bank, however, failed to disclose the fees earned for 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 fiscal years, respectively.

Records further showed that Ecobank collected the sum of N1,480,576,309.08 from 1,557,487 transactions carried out between 2015 and 2022.

From the amount, Ecobank earned the sum of N253,848,598.05 fees in the period under review.

Available records on the transactions carried out by Fidelity Bank showed that the sum of N6.847 trillion was collected on behalf of the federal government in 11,696,547 transactions carried out between 2015 to 2022.

From the transactions carried out, the bank generated N789,294,408.86 fee for the period under consideration.

Addressing the banks’ representatives, the committee requested all the agreements signed by the banks with Systemspec/REMITA to collect the revenue on behalf of the federal government for the period under review.

The lawmakers also demanded the breakdown of Value Added Tax (VAT) and Withholding Tax (WHT) collected within the period and evidence of payment into relevant government coffers.