TheCable

The senate on Wednesday directed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to terminate its contract with Systemspecs, owing to the company’s high fees for the management of the Treasury Single Account (TSA).

In December 2015, the senate had set up an ad hoc committee headed by John Enoh, a senator from Cross River Central, to investigate allegations that the TSA was being abused and mismanaged.

Dino Melaye, a senator from Kogi west, had raised a point of order during a sitting of the senate back then that Systemspecs was making N2.5bn – being one percent charge on every transaction – by providing its electronic payment platform, Remita, to the CBN as a means of mopping up funds for transfer to the treasury.

Presenting his report, Enoh confirmed that Systemspecs charged a one-percent fee on every transaction on its platform, which amounted to about N25bn for a nine-month transaction.

He recommended that the “2013 contract renewal between Systemspecs and the CBN be terminated” forthwith.

The senate adopted the recommendation.

It also directed that the “TSA one percent transaction fee be disregarded”.

The senate asked “the CBN to carry out an in-house inquiry to sanitise its procedure for the award of contracts, adding that it should identify the culprits in the contract and recommend them for prosecution”.

However, it asked that Systemspecs be paid a required fee for the services it had rendered.