 The federal government is projected to generate 136.3 billion as revenue from electronic money transfers to be paid by bank customers in 2023. Now this is based on the projected 2.7 billion volume of eligible online transfers in the year. The budget office of the federation, which disclosed this in its 2023-2025 medium-term expenditure framework and fiscal strategy paper released said the recently approved regulations governing the administration of the electronic money transfer levy EMTEL is expected to boost collections of the revenue. Now the government said it would also ensure proper monitoring of banks and other financial institutions to conduct reconciliation and to ensure deduction and remittance of the levy. On the show today, we will be looking at revenues from the E.T.M. and its impact on customers. Welcome to Business Insight in Clause TV, Africa. I am Justin Akadone. First off, the Lagos State government has launched its whistle-blowing initiative to ensure transparency, accountability, stimulating trust and more investment into Lagos State and above all to mitigate fraud. This was the submission of the Commission of Finance, Rabiu Olowo, speaking at the launch of the state whistle-blowing initiative in Laosa, Ikeja. Take a look. The whistle-blowing initiative, a statewide project, was introduced to provide a platform for employees, stakeholders and the general public to report violations, misconduct or unethical behavior across the state. It is meant to encourage reporting of illegal actions or financial crimes through the appropriate channel with a view to correcting noncompliance. The initiative aimed at building a speak-up culture in the public has been piloted by the Lagos State's Internal Revenue Service, LIRS. The state government's decision to pioneer implementation of the scheme in LIRS is in tandem with the agency's continuous drive and drive to ensure that our responsibility to the state is carried out efficiently and effectively. The LIRS both explained that the facility does not only provide the avenue to report but ensures credibility of reports through investigation, feedback and protection of such whistle-blowers. The facility is designed to ensure that concerns about wrongdoing or malpractice within the agency can be raised by any stakeholder without fear of victimization, subsequent discrimination, disadvantage or dismissal. The Commissioner for Finance in that of budget and economic planning, Rabi Ullovo and Sam Egubi in their separate speeches highlighted more on the initiative. Next leg, we need to first take it down to 20 local government areas and the 6 or 37 LCDAs to ensure that there is an end to end activity whereby we promote transparency, accountability for the Lagos residents. So this is something that we are going to do and we are very hopeful that it will be accepted. This particular launch is another milestone attempt to open up the state to accountability, to transparency to the citizens of Lagos State to participate in governance. It's our belief that there are improved and increased participation through safe channels like what we are launching today would stimulate trust, would stimulate openness and would stimulate investment from the people of Lagos. The platform is safe for confidentiality and it is independently managed by DELOT, a globally accredited company. The policy was introduced in December 2016 by the federal government as part of initiatives to wage war against corruption. Here, we sublime health line to dial should you see something and want to report. Please dial 0800 847 6337 From Megas, live Ikuku Uyidoku, Plus TV News. Welcome back. The Electronic Money Transfer Levy was introduced in the Finance Act 2020 which amended the STAM DUT Act and taps into the growth in electronic fund transfer in Nigeria. The 15 Naira Levy is charged on electronic transfer of money deposited in any bank or financial institution on any account on the sum of 10,000 Naira or more. The revenue derived from the EMT Levy is shared based on derivation and distributed at 15% to the federal government and federal capital territory 50% to the state government and 35% to the 774 local governments. The Public Relations Office of the Association of Mobile Money and Bank Agents in Nigeria, Uluwasegu Eligbe Dei joins us now in this discussion. Thanks for joining us on this particular discussion. Thank you Justin for having me. Alright, let us talk about this plan of the federal government to generate about 484 billion Naira from e-payment channels. Specifically, the whole discourse is going towards the EMT, the Electronic Money Transfer EMT rather. What is the situation before now and how will it actually affect customers going forward? Well, if you look at the report Justin, you will see that it is just projected that there will be increments in what the federal government will generate from EMTL. This has been in place since 2020. Towards the end of 2019, the policy was introduced by the night post because they had the arms in charge of custom duty. At the time, the Association of Kids was at the time on all amounts. But after it pushed, we were able to get 10,000 Naira single transaction and then from 10,000 Naira, they started to take effect on the receiver or the fund. The implication is that the effort that the federal government is making is ensuring that we have everyone included in the financial spectrum of the country. It will also be like a policy summary of some sort because if we put this into perspective as also card matiners and then SNS charges and some other charges that would make pressure depending on the bank we use, you will see that it's something that is of more for us as players in the industry. Looking at it right now, a whole lot is happening with the e-payment system and it is seemingly at that particular sector doing very, very well. For instance, from reports that we have seen so far, we had a Nigerian spending or utility bills have soared by 387%. That means a whole lot of Nigerians are using the e-payment channels and platforms, meaning that this particular channel is supposed to derive a whole lot for the federal government. But if you look at it in the entirety, do you think Nigerians would really be in support of this particular charge as it is? Like I said earlier, it's adding to the cost of access to financial services and if you look at the inflation rate as it is now and having to construct this kind of a charge, it's like adding to what Nigerians are already battling with in the economy as it is today. So to us, it is not a welcome development, not so that we can't be generated from this process, are not being translated into physical amenities that people can actually see. And if we haven't translated to something that people can even use, there are some effects of this being issued by the discharges that may be. But for now, just like the government is just taxing, we also realize that we still have people paying taxes in some other areas. So for us, this is like double taxing or multiple taxes for people. All right, but let's talk about this particular sector for Wombutan that look at them how it is really doing. You represent them and before now we have talked about them, how Nigerians have actually embraced using POS terminals for payments and for transactions and of course for other things that they would have ordinarily gone to the banks for. The reports say that even in transactions have risen by 85.5% in one year. But the issue right now for me would be standard. We have talked about this over time now. Has anything changed? Has it improved over time with the operators and with agents and of course those who provide these services? Well, in the example I think this space is being polarized. The situation is such that nowadays you even see supposed agents hulking around the streets which are supposed to be. The assets to POS terminals is not very related and these are sort of constants for us as an association. And we have lost our engagement with the needed and the rights decoders to ensure that the business space is prioritized and then because a lot of people who have been in this business for several eight years are really getting discouraged. The weight is have turned out. I will tell you, even though figures are rising in terms of transactions but at the base level, things are not going to be achieved. That's the truth. All right, things are not going as they should. But let's talk about some issues that have bedeviled this services. That's mobile money operations in the country. The last time you were here, we talked about education of these agents. Those people who have kiosks and those who operate from even sometimes shops and all of that. How far have you gone that's unbound in educating these agents too? So they don't fall victims of fraudulent activities? Like I said, we are not resting. In all of state chapters, even some of the state has a lot of chapters. We still try to ensure that we give our members the need that the training required to play in the sector. In terms of security, in terms of account reconciliation and being able to know when they have profit margin and not. And like this ANTL that we are talking about, some of them don't even know the application on their accounts. So we have to be aware that the application is out for them. And how they need to also guide against, because for some agents will receive some transfer into their account, for example. If you have 10 people transfer, 10,000 are born into your account daily. It means you have given the government 15 error in 10 places. And if you are charging 100 error for such transactions, it means your gross profit on each of those 100 is just 15 error. You also need to put in the consideration of the cost of paper, the cost of data, the cost of the space you are using and the cost on capital. So all of these we try to educate our members for them to be more aware and be more prepared in the challenges that we face in the business. Okay, but with all of this new policy as it is right now, what obtains is that for an average transfer, if I walk to a POS terminal, if I want to do a transaction, maybe a transfer of about 5,000 Naira, or if I want to do a withdrawal of about 5,000 Naira, I get to be charged about 100 Naira. But with this new initiative, would there be like an increase in charges maybe going forward? Definitely, it has to reflect for agents to stay afloat. It is not a buzzer. It's not a product, it's not a show. Everybody is in the business to make money. And when it gets to the point where the taxes, the standard fees, I want that cost, I want your profit margin. What it has, what it means is that you need to also scale up and then make sure you have your margin in the business. So definitely for agents who know what they are doing, they will definitely increase their charges across board. If they do increase their charges across board like you have said now, what does it really portend? Because most Nigerians patronize the POS service for convenience sake and then the needs for wanting to just go to the bank and standing in the queue and all of that. They would rather just go to the POS and then get withdrawals done or get payments done. But if their services are going to be more expensive, wouldn't it look like the federal government is trying to take business away from these people because the average Niger might just want to go to the bank for their transaction and not pay as much as maybe 150 Naira per transaction? Trust me, beyond the business, it's actually, again, if you look at the financial inclusion policy, it runs against the policy. It's like I said, it's like a policy of some sort. What we are trying to do is say everybody must be financial included. Now we are making the access to such national services more expensive for people. It makes them money away. They're rather money under their pillow or wherever. So going through already out accounts, it's more expensive for them to assess their funds and for those who do not have and who are still trying to call it to do, it becomes a demotivating factor for them that when I put my 10,000 Naira there, I'm not getting my 10,000 Naira back after a day. So it's like a policy of some sort. Okay, let's talk about other issues in operations of agents and them, operators, because we have had over time of disruptions and taxes may be illegal by local government and local council administration. Can you tell us about them? Well, just like the political government has done or are filtering, the same is for the state and some of the local government council, they look at a sector, a few, it's an area they can just make and get some funds to fund their activities and projects. I mean, and because you don't understand why the sector exists. The sector exists to cushion the effects of having to travel miles from your home to the banks to have access to your fund or to get financial services. So when they look at us, they look at, once they hear we'll buy money, what first comes to their mind is money runs in this business so we can tap on it. Most of us run on loans to do our businesses and the way we have these, we have, the state government will give a personal income tax notice. The local government will give you a trade permit. Then you have some other individual contractors that will also call you, they are tolling. Sometimes even we run also with low-toe guys that get money from getting low-toe and mobile money. So these issues we face, of course, there are times we have to sit with some of them to engage them and make them understand why we exist and do not assume our money runs like that in our sector. Alright, Shergo, let's talk more now concerning operations on Amban. You talked about a task force sometime in November last year. How far has this tax force gone in them and bringing sanity to operations in this mobile money agencies and all of that? Yeah, the major issue that we have regarding tax force that's kicked off is that from now in the business we have free entry. We are looking for a way where before we get into the business there will be some kind of checks and then some of them have to go through the association. But from now everybody seems not to come into this bracket for us to be able to ensure that the required regulation also the same regulation that we are talking about is applied. So we are doing more of an engagement with the government and the security of police making them to see the dangers in the market for now. And then we are getting positive responses and that's why we have not gone out fully as we should. We are trying to be so sure we have the good backing of the law because we are a law-abiding association. So from now we are taking it a step at a time. All right, before we round off I just want to find out how the relationship has been in recent times between Amban and other active players and as well as the regulator of the Central Bank of Nigeria. For the past six years we have had very, very robust relationship with the Central Bank of Nigeria. As we speak many of our state chapters are seats on the committee for financial inclusion in the respective states. And also with a whole lot of license operators we have good relationship with them and we make them understand how things are in our sector on the field. We give them feedback and the Central Bank has really told us that for us to achieve the sanity we crave in our sector it is for us to serve it. And of course they are ready to give us the backing at the time that we are ready. They are ready to give us the backing we are ready. And also the relationship with the regulators and the net operators for us is a good one. We are trying to build even on it. All right Shabu, the last question now for you would be in achieving this financial inclusion that we have talked about in Nigeria what more do we need to see in terms of maybe policies on the part of government to make sure that every Nigeria is banked maybe informally as it were if you go to the hinterlands everyone can actually enjoy their services what more needs to be put in place? Now, first and foremost we have the regulations to set up this sector. What we do not have is the implementation so we need to do more implementation and adhere to it. All parties must come together and begin to work and play by the books. And again, for us at the last long of the ladder in the sector we need more financial support from the government. What has happened over time is that these funds are released to the United States operators who also in turn maybe invest in some other areas but for us at the last round we actually provide these services as they are. We need the funds to be able to do more. And again we also want the government to help with the security of agents because as of now agents have become soft targets for androids and we are so open and nowadays you see that we cannot be robbed and made across the country. So we make more security and for us to be able to serve them to keep aligned people are not even from such areas now with the spread of killing and kidnapping in the country today. So it is the demotivated factor for many people who from now believe they can to be more going to the villages creeks and hinterlands. So we need to more and the government has come in this area to support the association and indeed all agents in this sector. Alright, many thanks Shagu for the thought and the insight you have brought to this particular discourse. Shagu Iligbe Dei the public relations officer of Amban and he has talked to us about the federal government's plan to get more revenue from electronic money transfers. We also looked at sanitizing the financial inclusion policy of the federal government. Thank you so much Shagu. And that's the size of the show for this week. I am Justin Aka. Many thanks for watching. We'll return again next week. Bye for now.