By The Central Bank of Nigeria, said that the proposed cybersecurity levy on all banking transactions does include Intra-account transfers within the same bank or between different banks and Inter-branch transfers within a bank.
The apex bank in circular had directed banks and other financial institutions to start charging cybersecurity levy on financial transaction.
The circular read in part, “Following the enactment of the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) (amendment) Act 2024 and pursuant to 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, which shall be administered by the Office of the National Security Adviser.”
The cybersecurity levy to be paid by Nigerians, according to the CBN circular:
1. A new levy of 0.5%, equivalent to half per cent, is applied to electronic transactions as mandated by the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) (amendment) Act 2024.
2. The levy is paid by the originator of the electronic transaction and deducted by the financial institution. The deducted amount shall be reflected in the customer’s account with the narration: “Cybersecurity Levy.”
3. Financial institutions will deduct the levy and remit it to the National Cybersecurity Fund administered by the Office of the National Security Adviser.
4. Deductions shall commence within two weeks from the date of the circular, May 6, and financial institutions must remit collected levies in bulk to the NCF account domiciled at the CBN monthly by the fifth business day of the following month.
5. Financial institutions have deadlines to update their systems to handle levy deduction and remittance. Failure to remit the levy can result in penalties, including a fine of up to 2% of a financial institution’s annual turnover.
The transactions excluded according to the CBN 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 customners of the same bank
Other Financial Institutions instructions to their correspondent banks
• Interbank placements
• Banks’ transfers to CBN and vice-versa
• Inter-branch transfers wvithin a bank
• Cheque clearing and settlements
• Letters of Credits
• Banks recapitalisation-related funding-only bulkf unds movement from
collection accounts Savings and deposits, including transactions involving long-term investments such as Treasury Bills, Bonds, and Commercial Papers.
• Government Social Welfare Programmes transactions eg. Pension payments
• Non-profit and charitable transactions, including donations to registered non-profit organisations or charities
• Educational institutions’ transactions, including tuition payments and other transactions involving schools, universities, or other educational institutions, Transactions involving bank’s internal accounts such as suspense accounts, clearing account, profit and loss accounts, inter-branch accounts, reserve accounts, nostro and vostro accounts, and escrow accounts.
