Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has called for the immediate suspension of Xpress Payment Solutions Limited’s appointment as a collecting agent under the Treasury Single Account (TSA) framework, describing the reported engagement as a dangerous attempt to nationalise what he termed “Alpha Beta revenue cartel model”.
But the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has dismissed Atiku’s allegations, describing them as “incorrect, misleading and risk unnecessarily politicising a purely administrative and technical process”.
In a statement signed by the Technical Assistant to the Executive Chairman on Broadcast Media, Arabinrin Atoyebi, the revenue agency stated that it operates a multi-channel, multi-payment service provider (PSSP) collection framework, not an exclusive arrangement.
According to FIRS, the current TSA framework includes several established platforms, including Quickteller, Remita, Etranzact, Flutterwave and XpressPay.
The agency emphasised that the PSSPs “are not collection agents and do not earn a processing fee per payment, nor a percentage of revenues.
“Crucially, all revenues collected through these channels go directly into the Federation Account, without diversion, intermediaries or private control. No PSSP has access to, or custody of, government funds.”
FIRS outlined four key features of its TSA collection framework: opening up the scheme to multiple PSSPs to eliminate single-provider dominance, improving efficiency through streamlined monitoring and reporting, creating jobs and expanding the market within the financial technology sector, and a transparent onboarding process that ensures fairness and equal opportunity.
The revenue service defended the ongoing national tax reform as “a cornerstone of Nigeria’s economic modernisation” grounded in transparency, efficiency and broad stakeholder engagement, urging Atiku and other political actors to “refrain from mischaracterising routine administrative processes for political gain”.
“Nigeria’s tax system is too important to be subjected to misinformation or unnecessary alarm. The FIRS remains fully committed to professionalism, transparency, and the continued strengthening of national revenue systems for the benefit of all Nigerians,” the statement concluded.
In a statement posted on his X account on Sunday, the former vice president accused the Federal Government of introducing the policy by stealth, without consultation, stakeholder engagement or National Assembly oversight.
“The Federal Government must come clean with Nigerians. The quiet appointment of Xpress Payments Solutions Limited as a new TSA collecting agent is not an administrative decision; it is a dangerous resurrection of the Alpha Beta revenue cartel that dominated Lagos State during and after the Tinubu years,” Atiku stated.
He alleged that the model created “a private toll gate around public revenue and funnelled state funds into the hands of a politically connected monopoly,” adding that the current administration was attempting to replicate the same template at the federal level.
The former Vice President questioned the timing of the appointment, which he said coincided with a period of national mourning over lives lost to insecurity.
“To introduce such a policy in the middle of a national tragedy, while Nigerians are mourning loved ones lost to the deepening insecurity crisis, is not only insensitive, it is a deliberate act of governance by stealth,” he said.
Atiku, who contested against President Bola Tinubu in 2023, raised several concerns about the appointment, asking why it was “rushed and smuggled into the public space” without proper oversight, the value of Xpress Payments adds and who truly benefits from the arrangement.
“This is not reform. This is state capture masquerading as digital innovation,” he declared, insisting that Nigeria does not need more middlemen between citizens and government revenue.
Atiku laid out five specific demands: immediate suspension of the Xpress Payments appointment pending a public inquiry, full disclosure of contractual terms, beneficiaries, fee structures and selection criteria, a comprehensive audit of TSA operations to prevent privatisation of revenue collection, a legal framework prohibiting the insertion of private proxies into core government revenue systems and a national security priority shift that recognises the need for transparent governance during times of crisis.
“Nigeria’s revenues are not political spoils. They are the lifeblood of our national survival, especially at a time when insecurity is tearing communities apart,” Atiku emphasised, urging the government to abandon what he described as “Lagos-style revenue cartelization” and return to the path of transparency, constitutionalism and public accountability.
The FIRS had recently appointed Xpress Payment Solutions as a collecting agent under the TSA framework, enabling taxpayers on the FIRS TaxPro Max platform to remit statutory payments, including company income tax, value-added tax and withholding tax through the company’s channels.
