The Central Bank of Nigeria has ordered banks operating in the country to start charging a cybersecurity levy on transactions.
A circular from the apex bank on Monday disclosed that the
implementation of the levy would start two weeks from today.
The circular was directed to all commercial, merchant,
non-interest and payment service banks, among others.
The circular revealed that it was a follow-up on an earlier
letter dated June 25, 2018 (Ref: BPS/DIR/GEN/CIR/05/008) and October 5, 2018
(Ref: BSD/DIR/GEN/LAB/11/023), respectively, on compliance with the Cybercrimes
(Prohibition, Prevention, Etc.) Act 2015.
The recent public engagements by the Office of the National
Security Adviser on the above subject, also refers.
Following the enactment of the Cybercrime (Prohibition,
Prevention, etc) (amendment) Act 2024 and under the provision of Section 44
(2)(a) of the Act, a levy of 0.5 per cent (0.005) equivalent to a half per cent
of all electronic transactions value by the business specified in the Second
Schedule of the Act, is to be remitted to the National Cybersecurity Fund which
shall be administered by the Office of the National Security Adviser.
The CBN said that all banks, other financial institutions
and payment service providers are now required to implement the directive,
saying, “The levy shall be applied at the point of electronic transfer
origination, then deducted and remitted by the financial institution. The
deducted amount shall be reflected in the customer’s account with the
narration, ‘Cybersecurity Levy’.
“Deductions shall commence within two weeks from the date of
this circular for all financial institutions and the monthly remittance of the
levies collected in bulk to the NCF account domiciled at the CBN by the fifth
business day of every subsequent month.”
Exempted from the levy include loan disbursements and
repayments, salary payments, intra-account transfers within the same bank or
between different banks for the same customer, intra-bank transfers between
customers of the same bank.
Also exempted from the levy were inter-branch transfers
within a bank, cheque clearing and settlements, Letters of Credits, Banks’
recapitalisation-related funding only bulk funds movement from collection
accounts, savings and deposits including transactions involving long-term
investments, among others.
The CBN, in recent times, has been making an effort to
sanitise the financial sector. It recently issued a directive which barred
fintechs from onboarding new customers.
The fintechs have in turn warned their customers against
engaging in crypto transactions on their platforms.
This also comes barely a week after the Federal Government
had directed Deposit Money Banks to immediately begin the deduction of 0.375
per cent stamp duty charge on all mortgaged-backed loans and bonds.
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