The much-awaited response of the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria Godwin Emefiele to the allegation of fraud leveled against him by a federal lawmaker, came in yesterday, setting the records straight on the actual amount that was generated from electronic transfer popularly known as stamp duty.
Mr Emefiele used the occasion of the post Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) media briefing of yesterday to announce that only N370.686 billion was collected by all the commercial banks from stamp duty from 2016 when the stamp duty collection commenced to date. “The report you have in CBN is this: that stamp duty collected to date is N370, 686,315,505.28 billion,” he stated.
To prove his point, the CBN governor attached copies of letters from all the commercial banks with details of how much were collected as stamp duty revenue on behalf of the federal government. The letters were all written in their respective letterhead papers.
A member of the House of Representatives, Gudaji Kazaure, had recently alleged that N89.09 trillion purportedly realised from deductions by banks as stamp duty charges had been diverted, an allegation that had created much controversy in the system.
