Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Mr Godwin Emefiele has denied the apex bank is withholding N89 trillion from the payment of stamp duty.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Mr Emefiele disclosed that total receipts from stamp duty payments in six years between 2016 and 2022 stand at N370,686 billion.
Emefiele made the disclosure during a press briefing on Tuesday in Abuja, after the first meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) in 2023.
Recall that a House of Representatives member, Alhaji Muhammed Kazaure, representing Kazaure, Roni, Gwiwa, Yankwashi of Jigawa raised the alarm in 2022 of alleged theft of stamp duty proceeds running into N89 trillion.
However, the CBN Governor emphasized that the apex bank was not withholding any N89 trillion.
“Total assets of all banks is N71 trillion; total deposit in banks is N44 trillion. From 2016 till date, stamp duty collection has amounted to N370,686 billion.
“The Federal Inland Revenue Service has disbursed N226.451 billion of the money to the Federation Account Allocation Committee, while the balance of N144,235 is in the CBN.
“The highest collection of the stamp is N71 billion, collected by First Bank,” Emefiele said.
He added that the CBN had appointed four world-class audit firms to go into the books of banks to verify if there was any unremitted stamp duty.
“If there is any uncollected stamp duty, the banks will pay to the last kobo,” he assured.
