Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL) revenue component of disbursements by the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) to the three tiers of government-Federal Government, states and local government councils, amounted to N182.26 billion in the first six months of this year, findings by New Telegraph has shown.
The amount is 91.16 per cent, or N86.91 billion, higher than the N95 billion disbursed by the Committee to the three tiers of government as EMTL revenue in the corresponding period of 2024. An analysis of communiqués of the seven FAAC meetings held this year indicates that the EMTL revenue disbursed to the three tiers of government amounted to N21.40 billion in January 2025; N35.17 billion in February; N26.01 billion in March, N40.48 billion in April, N28.82 billion in May and N30.38 billion in June.
A singular and one-off levy of N50 on the recipient of any electronic receipts or transfers of N10,000 and above, the EMTL was introduced by the Federal Government via the Finance Act of 2020 as a way of generating more revenue for its activities by tapping into the growth in electronic funds transfer in the country.
For equivalent receipts or transfers carried out in other currencies, the levy is charged at the exchange rates determined by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The levy, which applies to all account types, came into effect in January 2021 and is an amendment of the Stamp Duty Act, under which, N50 used to be levied on electronic payments above N1,000.
Under the Finance Act 2020, revenue derived from the EMT levy is shared based on derivation and distributed at 15 percent to the Federal Government and Federal Capital Territory, 50 percent to the state governments and 35 percent to the 774 local governments.
Thus, while announcing in the press release at the end of the July 2025 meeting of the FAAC, recently, a total sum of N1. 82 trillion to the three tiers of government as Federation Allocation for the month of June 2025 from a gross total of N4.23 trillion, the Director, Information and Public Relations at the Federal Ministry of Finance, Mohammed Manga, also provided details of disbursements to the three tiers of government from the EMTL.
He stated: “The sum of N30.380 billion from Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL) was distributed to the three (3) tiers of government as follows: the Federal Government received N4.375 billion, states got N14.582 billion, Local Government Councils received N10.208 billion, while N1.215 billion was allocated for Cost of Collection.”
Further analysis of communiqués of the FAAC meetings and data published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows that the amount generated from EMTL as revenue has maintained an upward trend annually since the levy was introduced. Specifically, official data shows that EMTL revenue generated by FIRS stood at N114 billion in 2021, N125.67 billion in 2022, N181.21 billion in 2023 and N212.69 billion in 2024.
Indeed, in its 2023 – 2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper, the Budget Office of the Federation had projected that the country would rake in at least N137.03 billion in 2023, N157.59 billion in 2024, and N189.11 billion in 2025, from the EMT levy.
