Emefiele denies N89trn stamp duty collection claims, reveals amount received by banks in six years

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Governor Godwin Emefiele has said the total revenue collected as stamp duty in six years between 2016 and 2022 is N370.686 billion.

A House of Representatives member, representing Kazaure, Roni, Gwiwa, Yankwashi of Jigawa State, Muhammed Kazaure, had raised the alarm in 2022 of alleged theft of stamp duty proceeds running into N89 trillion.

But Emefiele, who spoke after the Monetary Policy Committee meeting yesterday in Abuja, stressed that the CBN was not withholding any N89 trillion

“Total assets of all banks is N71 trillion; total deposits in banks is N44 trillion.

“From 2016 till date, stamp duty collection has amounted to N370.686 billion.

“The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has disbursed N226.451 billion of the money to the Federation Account Allocation Committee, while the balance of N144.235 billion is in the CBN.

“The highest collection of the stamp is N71 billion, collected by First Bank,” Emefiele said.

The CBN governor said the apex bank 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 said.