Nigeria: Treasury Single Account, Remita and federal tax filing

The Treasury Single Account and e-collection

The Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation says the e-Collection Scheme supports "the prompt collection of, and accounting for all Federal Government receipts" ¹. Payments to federal bodies pass through deposit money banks and electronic channels using the CBN Payment Gateway. They are credited to the federal government account or a named agency account at the CBN ¹.

Ministries, departments and agencies were told to close revenue and other collection accounts at commercial banks by 31 March 2015 and move the balances to the CBN ¹. A treasury circular of 7 August 2015 directed federal bodies to move their balances into the TSA, as reported by Mathias Okwe of The Guardian on 15 February 2017 ². About 20,000 accounts at home and abroad were merged into one ².

Accountant General Ahmed Idris said the TSA balance was ₦3 trillion in May 2016, ₦4.36 trillion in November 2016 and ₦5.224 trillion on 10 February 2017 ². He said the TSA saved an average of ₦4.7 billion a month in bank charges ².

Remita and the 1 per cent fee

Remita describes itself as a "ONE-STOP e-Payment, e-Collection and Payroll processing Platform" linking all banks in Nigeria ⁶. Federal bodies moved their balances to the CBN through the Remita gateway after full e-collection began in March 2015, as reported by Vanguard on 25 February 2016 ³.

Under a 2013 contract between the CBN and SystemSpecs, fees were based on 1 per cent of all collections ³. The Senate asked the government to end that contract and directed that the 1 per cent fee be disregarded ³. It set transaction costs up to 30 November 2015 at ₦656,504,100 in place of the ₦7,650,925,566.40 claimed. That figure used ₦700 per transaction for 937,869 transactions between 1 March and 30 November 2015 ³.

The Senate committee said the CBN should open e-collection to other providers and that vendors should consider an outright sale or annual licence fees ³. The SystemSpecs managing director said "the disagreement has only been on the commercial terms of our contract" ³. In February 2017 he said the firm had not been paid optimally ².

House of Representatives refund order

The House Public Accounts Committee, chaired by Bamidele Salam, directed SystemSpecs to refund ₦182,769,245,175.20, as reported by Busola Aro of TheCable on 17 April 2025 ⁴. The order followed a House resolution of November 2023 and a forensic report by Seyi Katola & Company ⁴. Interest was calculated at the CBN monetary policy rate of 27.25% ⁴. The amounts assigned to SystemSpecs are listed below ⁴.

• ₦3.42 billion in under-refunded transaction processing fees ⁴.
• ₦101.85 million in unpaid acquirer fees ⁴.
• ₦179.25 billion in unremitted collections ⁴.

Company response

Techeconomy reported on 18 April 2025 that the company "has yet to issue a public statement" on the House order ⁵. TheCable reported that some deposit money banks had already complied with a similar repayment directive ⁴.

Federal tax filing on TaxPro-Max

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) made TaxPro-Max the channel for naira tax returns from 7 June 2021, as reported by Wasilat Azeez of TheCable ⁷. The system handles registration, filing and payment and credits withholding tax to taxpayer accounts ⁷. A return must be filed on TaxPro-Max to generate a document identity number. Then FIRS chairman Muhammad Nami said "Taxpayers will not be able to pay without the DIN" ⁷.

The Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Act 2025, signed in June 2025, renamed FIRS as the Nigeria Revenue Service. The new name was unveiled on 1 January 2026, as reported by Voice of Nigeria ⁸. Zacch Adedeji is Executive Chairman ⁸.