Deposit Banks May Dump Treasury Single Account Scheme over Unpaid Fees

Indications have emerged that about twenty Deposit Money Banks, DMBs, involved in the implementation of the Treasury Single Account, TSA, are considering dumping the support services they are rending to see the effective execution of the project over unpaid fees.

The financial houses have lamented that their human and material resources are being deployed to successfully execute the project, yet the agreed fees are not paid, The Nation Learnt.

SystemSpecs, the owner company of Remita, the e-payment and e-collection software deployed by the federal government to drive the TSA said it was yet to receive fees for its services after returning N3.8 billion to the Federal Government after the Senate kicked against the fees.

The 20 participating banks also refunded N3.05 billion while the CBN refunded about N760.96 million under the fee-sharing ratio.

SystemSpecs’ Executive Director, ‘Deremi Atanda, said at the commencement of the project in May 2012, that it was agreed that one per cent of the sums collected from Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) would be deducted and shared among SystemSpecs, the banks and the CBN in ratios of 0.5 per cent, 0.4 per cent and 0.1 per cent respectively.

Atanda, who spoke at a media briefing in Lagos, said the company is not satisfied that its services are not being paid for in the last 14 months, a situation that is putting its finances under pressure. “We’re a software company and totally Nigeria. The knowledge economy has come of age, but Nigeria is still dependent in international companies,” he said.

He added: “There is a value added to some natural resources. We want to focus on agriculture and mining while we are leaving the frontier where the world is competing, which is intellectual property. We need to develop areas where we have comparative advantage.”