The Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) has condemned in its entirety the recent suspension of Remita, an indigenous payment solution on the Treasury Single Account (TSA) by the Federal Government (FG) and called for an urgent dialogue to resolve any identified issues, reports ITREALMS.
With over 35 years in software development, SystemSpecs is a certified member of NCS, and has saved FG billions of revenue collection with the Treasury Single Account (TSA) gateway after a rigorous bidding process.
The FG, through the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) confirmed that a new payment platform, the Treasury Management & Revenue Assurance System (TMRAS) had replaced Remita as the government’s revenue collection gateway from Tuesday, March 4th, 2025, in a memo dated February 28, 2025 and sighted by ITREALMS.
In a follow up clarification, OAGF explained that Remitta remains the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) approved payment gateway and FG is yet to discard Remita, insisting that Remita would be integrated into the new TMRAS among other eligible payment solution service providers in effort to open up the industry for liberalisation.
Reacting to the purported replacement, the umbrella body of all Information Technology (IT) professionals in the country, under the aegis of the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) condemned the jettisoning of Remita without due process, either in full or in part.
NCS President, Dr. Muhammad Sirajo Aliyu told ITREALMS in Lagos, Wednesday, that there is need for an urgent dialogue to mitigate whatever shortcomings FG may, because the step is a dint on efforts at growing indigenous software companies including Remita which has left its positive marks on the annals of IT and software development in the country.
Also, NCS wondered why FG decided to introduce a new payment platform that will manage its revenue collection across Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), when Remita performs that function efficiently.
As said by NCS, the TSA concept has ensured transparency in managing government finances through a single aggregator, and there is no need to introduce another payment platform when there are no known broken lines with Remita that cannot be fixed.
“Nigeria needs to celebrate its own. The TSA project is arguably the largest and most successful software driven IT project delivered 100 per cent on a 100 per cent indigenous technology by a Nigerian IT company,” Aliyu, who was accompanied by the Deputy President, Dr. Charles Onyeukwu and Executive Secretary, Mr. Adesegun Adekunle, declared, insisting that stakeholder-wide consultation is auspicious at this time.
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Stressing that Remita’s exceptional performance in software delivering was well celebrated by the former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo in his book "The Presidential Legacy - 1999 - 2007” after dusting many other international software providers and was selected by the World Bank in 2006 for the Integrated Payroll and Personnel information system (IPPIS) project.
Remmy Nweke/DoP
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