The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Monday directed banks to start the process of deducting cybersecurity levy to be administered by the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA).
According to a circular sent to commercial banks, mobile money operators, payment service providers, and others, the deduction of the cybersecurity levy is a sequel to the enactment of the 2024 Cybercrime (prohibition, prevention, etc) amendment Act of 2024 which provides for a 0.5% deduction of the value of all electronic transactions to the National Cyber Security Fund which would be administered by the office of the NSA.
While the levy is to be charged on all electronic transactions and applied at the point of transfer origination, the CBN in an appendix to the circular, listed 16 transactions exempted from the levy. According to the banking regulator, these transactions include:
Meanwhile, reactions have continued to trail the announcement of the cybersecurity levy. Although the levy has been in the Cybercrime Act 2015, which was amended this year but not implemented until now, Nigerians are saying the timing is wrong.
Reacting to the announcement via a post on the social media platform, X, the Founder and CEO of House of Lunettes, Mr. Akin Olaoye, said:
A serial tech entrepreneur, Mr. Victor Asemota, said it would have been better for the government to allow telecom operators to increase their tariffs, which would yield more taxes, than introducing the cybersecurity levy.
Also reacting to the levy, another X user identified as Uncle Jay, wrote: