An indigenous electronic payment platform, Remita, is the machine driving Nigeria’s cashless scheme, as it processes over N500 billion electronic transactions monthly. Its business cuts across government, corporates and individuals.
Chief Executive Officer of Systemspecs, owner of the payment platform, John Obaro, said Remita is a one-stop, multibank, modular e-payment, e-collections, e-payroll and e-schedules platform.
“A very powerful platform, Remita presents individuals and organisations with a very simple and intuitive user interface.
“Today, individuals and public and private sector organisations have processed over N12 trillion of transactions on the platform and today, we process minimum of N500 billion monthly,” he disclosed.
Remita was adopted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as e-payment and e-collection platforms and is used by all the 22 commercial banks and over 400 microfinance banks countrywide.
The platform surfaced some 10 years ago when the Pension Act was enacted. Its purpose then was to support the Pension Fund Administration but has been developed to become a one-stop e-payment platform that can be used by government, corporates and individuals.
However, one key feature is e-collection, which enables businesses and governments to handle funds collection much easier.
Obaro explained that charges for the use of the platform are also attractive at 1.5 per cent of transaction value, which is lower than between 2.5 per cent and 3.5 per cent charged on other platforms.
Remita Group Head, Demola Igbalajobi, said apart from the acceptance of the solution by the federal and state governments, it is used by corporate, small and medium enterprises across the country.
“So, our footprint is across the economy and in different sectors.”
Remita personal multi-bank feature empowers individuals to carry out a number of activities.
It allows them to view the balances on their accounts across all banks on a single screen, with a single login; do fund transactions from any of their accounts in any bank; and make payment to single or multiple beneficiaries at the same time; among others.