The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has ordered banks to start charging a 0.5 per cent cybersecurity levy on electronic transfers.

The CBN gave the directive via a circular dated May 6, 2024, and directed to all commercial, merchant, non-interest and payment service banks, among others.

The circular was signed by the apex bank’s director of payments system management, Chibuzor Efobi; and director of financial policy and regulation, Haruna Mustafa.

The apex bank noted that the deduction and collection of the cybersecurity levy is a sequel to the enactment of the Cybercrime (prohibition, prevention etc) Amendment Act of 2024.

It stated: “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 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 (NCF), which shall be administered by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).

“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 5th business day of every subsequent month.

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“Accordingly, all Banks, other Financial Institutions and Payments Service Providers are hereby required to implement the above provision of the Act.

“The deducted amount shall be reflected in the customer’s account with the narration: ‘Cybersecurity Levy’.

“Penalties for Non-compliance Section 44 (8) of the Act prescribes that failure to remit the levy is an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of not less than 2% of the annual turnover of the defaulting business, amongst others.”

However, loan disbursements and repayments, salary payments, intra-account transfers within the same bank or between different banks for the same customer, and intra-bank transfers between customers of the same bank will remain unaffected by the new charge.

Inter-branch transfers within a bank, cheque clearing and settlements, ⁠Letters of Credit, ⁠Banks’ recapitalisation-related funding only bulk funds movement from collection accounts, savings and deposits including transactions involving long-term investments, among others are also not affected by the cybersecurity levy.

The Star