Tech firms, Senate plan REMITA monopoly break – TheNigerialawyer

The Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance, and other Financial
Institutions has started a probe of the SystemSpecs Limited with a
view to breaking its monopoly over the Treasury Single Account of
the Federal Government.

The Chairman of the Senate panel, Uba Sani, has already summoned
the management of the firm to appear before his committee on
Tuesday, with relevant documents, especially its audited
accounts.

The letter of invitation to the firm obtained by our
correspondent on Friday explained that the committee had been
inundated with series of petitions.

It explained that the petitioners had expressed fears that the
continued monopoly of the TSA by the firm, which is using the
Remita platform, posed great security risks to the nation’s
economy.

The letter, dated 18 November 2019, enumerated six dangerous
risks the nation could be exposed to, if the monopoly of
SystemSpecs over the TSA was not immediately checked.

The correspondence read, “The Federal Government Treasury Single
Account initiative could not have been more realisable without an
e-payment solution.

“SystemSpecs e-payment platform, Remita, was selected to enable
the realisation of the TSA initiative.

“Nonetheless, we have been challenged with numerous petitions
from different parties concerned about the imminent risks and
possible perils that could bedevil and devastate the revenue
collection systems of the government and cause irreparable
damage.

“This committee has therefore carried out a review of these
distress signals and we are largely alarmed at the gravity of these
dangers.

“The dependency on Remita has flared up critical coercions that
are of great concern to this administration.”

The letter identified the six threats to the TSA, as currently
structured to include single operator risk, political risk,
economic risk, market risk, service risk and operational/technical
risk.

The letter further read, “The Remita platform enjoys a monopoly
that creates an unhealthy environment for competition with other
licensed FinTech companies.

“The current monopoly erodes the guarantee, trust and confidence
local and international agencies that partner the government, have
in the transparency and accounting reporting structure of
government earnings and spending.

“This holds especially as Remita is privately owned and there is
a need for a level playing field and accountability.

“It is established that SystemSpecs has a robust management team
with well-structured ownership.

“However, there is always the felt need to constantly unveil
this structure to ascertain and demean any risks that are usually
associated with private firms. This committee is concerned with
continuity.

“To accurately have a superior understanding on SystemSpecs’
position in a potential N20tn economy, kindly provide the
following: audited accounts from 2015 with detailed collection and
remittance reports for all MDAs for the past four years; any other
relevant reports to support the renewal of your contract.”

But SystemSpecs in its response through a letter signed by its
Managing Director /Chief Executive Officer, John Tata, allayed the
fears of the Senate over the issues raised against the firm’s
monopoly.

In the 11-page letter also obtained on Friday, the company said
its sole management of the nation’s TSA did not pose any threat or
risk whatsoever to the Nigerian economy.