The Treasury Single Account (TSA) contract that gave out 1% as remittance fee for all government accounts moved to the Central Bank of Nigeria was signed under the regime of Goodluck Jonathan in 2012, a CBN source has revealed to SaharaReporters.

The Peoples Democratic Party had claimed recently that the TSA policy was formulated under former President Jonathan. However, due to weak regulations and corruption in the system, several ministries, departments and agencies of the Nigerian government refused to conform with the TSA policy.

A company, Systemspecs Ltd, founded by John Tanimola Osaro in 1992, got the contract to oversee the remittance of funds into the TSA. “Remita” is the flagship product of Mr. Obaro’s Systemspecs Ltd. According to our CBN source, the company built in a demand for a 1% fee to be paid to it for all remittances made into the TSA. System specs Ltd is chaired by a former Nigerian Ambassador to the UK and chair of SURE-P program under ex-President Jonathan’s regime.

Since President Muhammad Buhari made it mandatory for MDAs to remit funds into the TSA, Systemspecs company had already been paid N8.6 billion when CBN officials claimed they detected the anomaly and forced Mr. Obaro’s company to refund the excessive remittance fee. So far, the TSA account has N1.5 trillion deposited in it, the CBN source said no commission was paid.

The Central Bank source said the apex bank was in the process of developing internal competency to enable it to handle the TSA. "We at the Central Bank should be able to handle remittances into the TSA without having to pay any so-called consultants a bloated remittance fee," the source said.

SaharaReporters also contacted the former Central Bank Governor, Lamido Sanusi, who is now the Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi II. He asserted that the CBN did not sign any contract with REMITA under his watch. In a series of text messages, he stated that it was the Ministry of Finance and the Accountant General of the Federation who must have signed the contract with REMITA. The former CBN Governor added that only Nigeria's Finance Minister is entitled to pay commission on such payments. He said under his tenure as CBN Governor his team kept pushing for TSA. According to him, the CBN's call for the institution of TSA could be found in the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting communiques. He told SaharaReporters that some ministers in ex-President Jonathan's government resisted the TSA apparently because they were doing deals with banks.

SaharaReporters contacted Mr. Obaro’s company, but he did not respond to our inquiries as at the time of going to press.

kokoro dudu • 4 hours ago

PUTTING THE RECORDS STRAIGHT...WHAT I KNOW ABOUT REMITA....(Please be alert to my emphasis on some words and phrases using capital letters)

Some years back...I suppose a little more than 5 yrs but preceding the the GEJ era, I saw an advert in the newspapers....a new epayment/collection system developed locally by a Nigerian, with a brand name REMITA was advertised. It sought to bring additional innovation to the landscape dominated by Interswitch but focused on the Corporate epayment solutions.

The solution was developed to help corporate organizations leverage online platform to drive collections especially from distributors of their products in order to eliminate leakages and fraud...and also for govts to drive collections....I checked the Company that developed it, it was no other than...SYSTEM SPECS...A Technology innovation and solutions company that is one of the early local technology developers in Nigeria owned by Mr John Obaro....I suppose he is from the NIGER DELTA REGION OF NIGERIA.!!.....

ROLL BACKWARD TO LATE 90S

Mr Obaro's company SYSTEM SPECS had about 15 + years ago developed the first Human Capital Management solution in Nigeria called HUMAN MANAGER...the first to compete with similar solutions owned by foreign Hi-Tech companies like SAP and SAGE....being a cheaper solution, it caught the waves and many corporates bought the solution to manage their HR. I recall that when Capital Alliance Private Equity set-up in Nigeria in late 90s, SYSTEM SPECS was one of the first Technology companies they wanted to invest in because of their forward looking business, but it eventually did not happen...........

FAST FORWARD TO 2014....

When the former Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy , Ngozi Okonjo Iwela came up the the TSA policy in 2014, she of course knew that the only way it will be efficient was to drive it through an eCollection /ePayment platform so that Revenue agencies and collection banks can automatically remit funds to the TSAs in CBN without much of human intervention and to avoid revenue leakages. So I think sometime in Oct/Nov 2014, NOI through the approval of former President GEJ signed the contract with SYSTEM SPECS to leverage the REMITA SOLUTIONS....(Our own home grown solution in promotion of local content in Technology adoption) to be the eCollection platform....

Now by all local and global standards, eCollection platforms typically charge between 1%-3% of total value of transactions...so I do believe that NOI agreed to the lower band...1% and signed the deal. That means REMITA platform, owned by SYSTEM SPECS will charge 1% of total revenues collected through it!..... It is imperative to note here that THIS CONTRACT WAS SIGNED BY NOI UNDER GEJ GOVT ....and that is the subsisting contract till date...... I suppose because the TSA compliance under GEJ was very low, the charges may not have been so high enough in one swoop to warrant the "eagle eye" of Nigerians...or better put, news fabricators! propagandists!! and News Mongers!!!

ROLL FORWARD CURRENT DAY....

Naturally when PMB ordered for full compliance of TSA....I honestly would not know if the transfers were made through REMITA or not, but I suppose being the ecollection platform they applied 1% charge on the transfers!....leading to about N25B income, that many have criminalized and came up with spurious allegations and fabricated lies on......Suddenly, a deal contracted and signed by NOI and approved by GEJ.........SYSTEM SPECS (Erroneously called REMITA, the brand name of the solution); has been baptised and transfigured by some rumour hungry Nigerians to now be ALPHA BETA (company alleged to be owned by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu) and deal trending to be a PMB deal!!!......

Now, while I personally may have issue with the terms of charges, I think we should understand this is a CONTRACT signed by previous govt and stands to face serious legal issues if it was reversed or cancelled without due process......But I do also know for those who see everything wrong with PMB...or who are looking for ways to accuse him, ...had he cancelled the contract, they will still say he is REVERSING ALL THAT FORMER PRESIDENT GEJ DID!!!!......

May be Nigerians should be told, that the standard applied by SYSTEM SPECS is acceptable globally and various govt revenue agencies using online medium like Nigeria Immigration (ePassport) (never mind they have gone manual to enable the usual fraud to continue), have done similar things.....Blame should go the govt that signed the contract because they could have negotiated better and much lower charges considering the VOLUME OF TRANSACTIONS INVOLVED. Or even negotiate an outright purchase of the platform!!...I suppose should not have cost more than $10-20m to purchase it and then ask SYSTEM SPECS to operate it for annual fees!!

Surely, if some Nigerians are not careful, the way they are going they will use propaganda to set this nation on rage!!!,...I just can not fathom the level of bitterness......
http://saharareporters.com/2015/11/12/treasury-single-account-contract-signed-under-president-goodluck-jonathan#comment-2357338558

Jesusloveyou:
Thank God for "change"

Rad1cal:


When will Alpha beta return all Lagos "loot"

Jesusloveyou:
this is d era of change, and ur clueless corrupt ogogoro hero and his cronies cannot keep on enjoying their loot after been kick out

razid:

Personally, what is the big deal in 1%? That is the trouble with Nigerians. This issue is based on an agreement of which both parties are signatory. Why the hue and cry? Have they pondered on the liability involved if the system malfunction? We're talking of 2.5 trillion compare with 25billion only. Some of these people are very very ignorant. As a developer, I developed for a cooperative society and I charged 5% because of the risk involved. They are looking at the money but they fail to look at what goes in to bring in the money. Bunch of ignorant f..ls.

Rad1cal:


Fool i asked a simple question. When will Alphabeta return their commission running into billions of naira from the lasg.

razid:

Personally, what is the big deal in 1%? That is the trouble with Nigerians. This issue is based on an agreement of which both parties are signatory. Why the hue and cry? Have they pondered on the liability involved if the system malfunction? We're talking of 2.5 trillion compare with 25billion only. Some of these people are very very ignorant. As a developer, I developed for a cooperative society and I charged 5% because of the risk involved. They are looking at the money but they fail to look at what goes in to bring in the money. Bunch of ignorant f..ls.

CyberWolf:
But it's SLS that awarded the contract to them..

SLIDEwaxie:
can't you read? He said he wasnt the one.

CyberWolf:
But it's SLS that awarded the contract to them..

SLIDEwaxie:
deal with this, boy and stop foaming in the mouth. what is the job of the CBN if it cannot handle remmitances from the banks since it deals with the banks and handles their funds directly. accept the fact that the company was set us for this selfish purpose: to embezzle an unnecessary fund.

what is the big deal in UBA remmitting XXXX Billion and CBN auditing and checking all papers?

This auditing company has chairmen who have nother to do with auditing. they are all past government officials who just wanted to use the avenue to rip off the masses again!

naija2dabone:
So it's not Buhari's iniative ? Wow. Interesting

Okanokan:
Before now Apc claims with thier introduction of TSA, The Buhari's administration had dealt Corruption a DEATH BLOW. But with the recent revelation on the floor of the Senate of how the TSA is used to rip Nigeria, The Apc is now saying Jonathan is the cause. One thing Nigerians have noticed about the Apc is that they won't own up where they make mistake but where the policy of previous administrations is good they will claim it as thier own. Mr Buhari during the swearing of Ministers spoke passionately about TSA and it will help reduce corruption, but today, Nigerians are now aware that it was policy put in place by the Jonathan Administration and not the Apc. From all indication the Apc is not original and more importantly, the Apc hardly carry out an indepth analysis of previous policies of Government before applying, misapplying and or abandoning it altogether. Apc can only survive by Propaganda. Pdp is BAD but Apc is WORSE.

MadCow1:



Did you read the part that says the agreement with the Company was signed in 2012?


Who was in power in 2012?