The CBN under current Governor
Godwin Emefiele in August directed
the company to refund monies
deducted as professing fees when it
discovered that over N8 billion was
collected.
The letter to the President dated
November 6, 2015 and signed by the
Managing Director of System Specs,
Mr. John Obaro, reads in part:
“Your Excellency, we are aware that
you must have heard series of
reports around the 1% processing
fees chargeable on e-Collections of
Government receipts. We will like to
provide some background on these
issues sir.
“System Specs was engaged to
provide the Payment Gateway for TSA
in 2011. While the payment leg of
TSA commenced in January 2012, the
collection component did not start
as scheduled due to the resistance
from a number of quarters and the
absence of the political will to push
this through.
“In 2013, CBN and OAGF setup a
multi-stakeholder implementation
committee and organised a joint
seminar with key stakeholders,
including banks, to agree formalities
for commencement of e-collection.
“The Banks proposed a fee of 5% to
compensate for the fact that they
would no longer keep float.
“The implementation committee
however recommended 2.5% after
negotiation with the banks.
“The then AGF later approved 1% as
processing fee, which was in turn
communicated to all the
stakeholders through CBN in
December 2013. Subsequently, we
executed a contract with CBN and
other stakeholders involved on the
provision of services to support TSA.
“Based on the increased scope of the
TSA project, following your directive
in August 2015 for all MDAs to join
the scheme, we had highlighted the
need for a stakeholder meeting to
discuss the TSA e-collection fees.
This was communicated to both CBN
and OAGF.
“Instead of an invitation for a
stakeholders meeting as requested,
we received a directive from the CBN
Governor to refund all TSA e-
collection fees earned to date and to
suspend all charges on the platform.
“System Specs has since complied
fully with this directive and refunded
all monies earned to date to CBN.
This we did in good faith and
without prejudice to avoid
distractions that could becloud the
bigger potential of the TSA project
for our country.
“While we await clarification from
OAGF/CBN on the way forward, we
have since suspended all TSA e
collection fees on the platform. This
means that none of the TSA
collection parties/channels are
earning any fees for providing
services to Government.
“This position is however not
sustainable as the collection partner
banks are threatening to suspend
FGN TSA collections. This would
clearly be playing into the hands of
those who do not wish this initiative
to succeed.
“We understand the strategic
importance of the TSA project to this
administration and the country at
large. We have demonstrated good
faith and continued commitment to
the project in the last four years to
deliver on our mandate.
“We will continue to do all within
our power to bring the project to
full term.
“Your Excellency, we would
appreciate your kind and urgent
intervention to ensure a speedy
resolution of this matter before the
banks stop collections.”