The Office of the Accountant General of the Federation has clarified that the Federal Government has not abandoned Remitta as its approved Central Bank of Nigeria payment gateway.

It said the platform will be integrated into the newly launched Treasury Management and Revenue Assurance System.

In a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday, the OAGF confirmed that TMRAS officially goes live on the same day, following the directives of President Bola Tinubu and the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun.

The statement read, ?The Office of the Accountant General of the Federation has clarified that the Federal Government has not discarded Remitta as the Central Bank of Nigeria approved payment gateway.

?The OAGF explained that Remitta would rather be integrated into the Treasury Management and Revenue Assurance alongside other eligible Payment Solution Service Providers for government revenue collection and remittances to enhance liberalisation.?

The new system is expected to enhance government revenue assurance, improve budget performance, and streamline the Federal Government?s revenue collection and payment processes.

According to the statement, TMRAS will serve as a comprehensive treasury management platform that coordinates revenue collections and payments for all Ministries, Departments, and Agencies.

The system is designed to liberalise the revenue collection process, ensuring that multiple secure payment providers, licensed by the CBN, can operate alongside Remitta to facilitate transactions.

The OAGF stressed that Remitta remains a secure and approved channel but will no longer be the sole platform for government payments. Instead, other eligible Payment Solution Service Providers will also be integrated into the new system, expanding access and improving efficiency.

The move, according to the OAGF, aims to modernise and strengthen the government?s financial infrastructure, providing better tracking, transparency, and real-time analysis of revenue inflows.

To address concerns over potential disruptions, the OAGF assured the public that Remitta would continue to function as the exclusive payment gateway for government transactions for at least the next two months.

However, ongoing efforts are in place to transition the front-end payment infrastructure under government management, allowing more CBN-licensed payment service providers to participate in the system.

The OAGF advised revenue payers and the general public to continue using Remitta for federal government transactions and also directed them to visit www.fgntreasury.gov.ng for further payment instructions.

In a memo from the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, dated February 28, 2025, and obtained by The PUNCH on Monday, the new platform, named Treasury Management & Revenue Assurance System, is designed to streamline and manage federal revenue collections and payments across ministries, departments, and agencies, including those benefiting from donor funds, trust funds, social security funds, and special funds.

?The system would go live on March 4, 2025, as it will be deployed in two phases,? the memo noted.

According to the memo, the first phase will only cover payments and collections for the naira component.

It will also enable the OAGF and MDAs to generate bank statements, track balances, and activate automatic deduction and remittance of taxes associated with vendor and contractor payments, including VAT, Withholding Tax, and Stamp Duty.

The second phase, expected to commence on June 1, 2025, will cover collections and payments involving foreign exchange and integration with MDA Enterprise Resource Planning systems.

?This phase shall also cover activation of the budget module for MDAs not in the national budget and other non-budgetary financial activities to enforce budget control,? the memo stated.

The document further emphasised that the automatic deduction of 50 per cent of Internally Generated Revenue from Federal Government agencies and parastatals will remain in effect. (Punch)

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