CBN debunks N89tn Stamp Duty claim, says N370.686bn was collected by banks

Central Bank of Nigeria at post Monetary policy press briefing debunk claims that it is holding on to N89 trillion stamp duty collection. Godwin Emefiele, the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said that the total revenue collected as stamp duty between 2016 and 2022 is N370.686 billion. He said the money was not N89 trillion as claimed by Muhammed Kazaure, a member of the House of Representatives, in a petition to the president in 2022. He said that the CBN was not withholding N89 trillion.

Emefiele said the clarification became necessary following allegation that an humongous sum of N89 trillion collected as stamp duty had been stolen. He said total assets of all banks in the country was N44 trillion.“From 2016 till date, stamp duty collection has amounted to N30, 686 billion. The federal Inland Revenue Service has disbursed N226.451 billion of the money to the federation Account Committee, while the balance of N144,235 is in the central bank,’ he said. “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 un-remitted stamp duty. If there is any uncollected stamp duty, the banks will pay to the last kobo,” he assured.