Nigeria’s House of Representatives Gives Ultimatum to Deploy Automation of Foreign Currency Collection

The House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee has given a 60-day ultimatum to the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, and the Accountant General of the Federation, Oluwatoyin Madein, to deploy the automation of foreign currency collection in Nigeria’s foreign missions.

The Chairman of the Committee, Bamidele Salam, made the charge at a public hearing on the status of automation of foreign currency collection in Nigeria’s foreign missions, held in Abuja on Tuesday. The automation exercise aims to facilitate the control generated by foreign currencies from embassies by the Federal Government.

According to Madein, Files Solutions Limited was awarded a contract worth N83.6 million on April 28, 2021, to automate foreign currency collection at Nigeria’s foreign missions across the globe. The contract includes a commission of 1-5 per cent depending on the amount the company can collect. Madein noted that 90 per cent of the contract sum, amounting to N75.2 million, has been paid to the contractor.

The terms of the contract aim to ensure that the collection of revenue from all Nigerian foreign missions is online in real-time, as well as a multi-currency conversion and multi-language web portal. Madein stated that 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.

The committee further mandated the Accountant General to submit records of the gross revenue generated for all foreign missions in the past five years.