The Accountant General of the Federation, Oluwatoyin Madein, and the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, have been issued a 60-day ultimatum by the House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee to implement automation of foreign currency collection in Nigeria’s overseas missions.
During the public hearing on Tuesday in Abuja regarding the state of automation of foreign currency collection in Nigeria’s overseas missions, Bamidele Salam, the Chairman of the Committee, delivered the charge.
The automation project aims to make it easier for the federal government to regulate foreign exchange produced by embassies.
During the hearing, Madein told the committee that Files Solutions Limited had been given a contract to automate the collection of foreign cash at Nigeria’s diplomatic missions abroad.
She continued by saying that the N83.6 million deal, which was awarded on April 28, 2021, included a fee of 1 to 5 percent, depending on how much the business was able to collect.
She continued by saying that the contractor has received N75.2 million, or 90% of the total contract amount.
According to Mrs. Madein, the contract’s requirements include a multi-currency conversion tool and a multilingual web portal, as well as online, real-time income collection from all Nigerian diplomatic missions abroad.
She said, “The automation of the foreign currency collection portal was launched on May 25, 2023, by the immediate past Minister of Finance but was never put into use as of June 5, 2024.
“Our office is in the process of obtaining approval from the Ministry of Finance to deploy the software which has been tested.
“Discussion is ongoing with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to provide a list of foreign missions for pilot purposes.”
Nekan Olateru, the managing director of File Solutions Limited, stated that the business completed all technological processes during the previous three years.
Timehin Adelegbe, a committee member, bemoaned in his speech what he called the lack of openness in foreign revenue collection and said automation would solve the problem.
Committee member Sunday Umeha made a motion to comply with automation within 60 days, seemingly as a sign of his desire to address the underlying cause of the problem.
After the motion was approved, the panel mandated that, with no possibility of extension, the automation of foreign exchange collection in Nigerian embassies be started within sixty days.
The committee additionally directed the Comptroller General to present documentation detailing the total income earned for every overseas mission during the previous five years.
