The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) instructed banks to start charging a 0.5% cybersecurity levy on electronic transactions across the nation.
This was contained in a circular signed by Chibuzo Efobi, Director of the Payments System Management Department, and Haruna Mustafa, Director of the Financial Policy and Regulation Department.
Addressed to various banking institutions including commercial, merchant, non-interest, and payment service banks, the circular specified that the levy’s enforcement will begin two weeks from Monday, May 6, 2024.
“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,’” the circular partly read.
CBN Exempts 16 Banking Transactions from Cybersecurity Levy
In detail, the exemptions from the CBN’s new cybersecurity levy are:
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. Instructions from other Financial Institutions to their correspondent banks
6. Interbank placements
7. Banks’ transfers to CBN and vice-versa
8. Inter-branch transfers within a bank
9. Cheque clearing and settlements
10. Letters of Credit
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 non-profit organizations or charities
15. Educational institutions’ transactions, including tuition payments and other transactions involving schools, universities, or other educational institutions
16. Transactions involving the 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.