Nigeria abandons treasury single account gateway Remita  after 13 years

Nigeria's central government is set to unveil a new payment system following its decision to discontinue its partnership with local payment company Remita. The Treasury Management & Revenue Assurance System (TMRAS) will replace Remita, streamlining payment collections across various ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs).

In addition, payments outside the regular budget, including those from Special Accounts, will now be processed exclusively through the new system. While TMRAS will go live today, Remita will continue operating alongside it until Saturday, May 4, 2025.

Remita, a financial services platform owned by SystemSpecs, has served as the gateway for the Treasury Single Account (TSA) of the Nigerian government since 2012.

According to local media reports, the new payment system will be rolled out in two phases.

The first phase will focus on naira payments and collections, enabling the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation to generate bank statements, track balances, and activate automatic deduction and remittance of taxes related to vendor and contractor payments, such as VAT, Withholding Tax, and Stamp Duty.

The second phase, scheduled to begin on Sunday, June 1, 2025, will focus on handling collections and payments in foreign exchange. Additionally, the system will integrate with MDA Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems to further streamline government operations.

This new payment system will also automate the deduction and remittance of internally generated revenue from federal agencies, which the government believes will improve both transparency and accountability.

Remita isn't the only payment company affected by this shift. Only payment companies approved by the Accountant General will be authorised to collect revenue on behalf of the government.

A memo from the government states, "MDAs are advised to direct all PSSPs currently collecting on their behalf to connect with the official CBN payment gateway, for seamless coordination of government collections on the platform. The process of profiling PSSPs shall begin immediately, and certified PSSPs will be listed on the TMRAS for collections."

Although Remita briefly faced scrutiny in 2016 when senators called for the termination of its contract, the company managed to weather the storm and maintain its position.

However, this recent move places Remita at risk. While the company has diversified its business outside government contracts, it continues to lag behind competitors such as Paystack and Flutterwave in the payment processing space, despite being around longer than the two. The long-term effects of this change on Remita's business remain to be seen.