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The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has directed banks and other financial institutions to implement a 0.5 percent cybersecurity levy on electronic transfers.
This was contained in a circular signed by Chibuzor Efobi, Director of Payments System Management, and Haruna Mustafa, Director of Financial Policy and Regulation, on Monday.
The directive was issued to commercial, merchant, non-interest and payment service banks, as well as mobile money operators.
CBN said the policy would take effect in two weeks and charges would be described as “Cybersecurity Levy.”
According to the apex bank, the deduction and collection of the cybersecurity levy follows the enactment of the Cybercrime (prohibition, prevention etc) Amendment Act of 2024.
“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% (0.005) equivalent to a half percent 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 (NCF), which shall be administered by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).
“Deductions shall commence within two (2) 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 5th business day of every subsequent month,” the circular read.
CBN said failure to remit the levy is an offence which attracts a fine of not less than 2 per cent of the annual turnover of the defaulting business, amongst others.
“Finally, all institutions under the regulatory purview of the CBN are hereby directed to note and comply with the provisions of the Act and this circular,” it added.
Exempted from the levy are 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.
List of exemptions from cybersecurity charges are as follows:
1. Loan disbursements and repayments
2. Salary payments
3. Intra-account transfers within the same bank or between different banks for the same customer
4. Intra-bank transfers between customers of the same bank
5. Other Financial Institutions (OFIs) instructions to their correspondent
6. Banks Interbank placements
7. Banks’ transfers to CBN and vice-versa
8. Inter-branch transfers within a bank
9. Cheques clearing and settlements
10. Letters of Credits (LCs)
11. Banks’ recapitalization related funding – only bulk funds movement from collection accounts
12. Savings and deposits including transactions involving long-term investments such as Treasury Bills, Bonds, and Commercial Papers.
13. Government Social Welfare Programs transactions e.g. Pension payments
14. Non-profit and charitable transactions including donations to registered nonprofit organisations or charities.
15. Educational Institutions transactions, including tuition payments and other transaction involving schools, universities, or other educational institutions.
16. Transactions involving bank’s internal accounts such as suspense accounts, clearing accounts, profit and loss accounts, inter-branch accounts, reserve accounts, nostro and vostro accounts, and escrow accounts
Recall that banks had earlier announced the reintroduction of two per cent charge on deposits above N500,000.