Cybersecurity Levy: CBN direct banks to charge 0.5% on all electronic transactions
The levy shall be applied at the point of electronic transfer origination, then deducted and remitted by the financial institution.
The Central Bank of Nigeria on Monday directed all banks to commence charging a 0.5 percent cybersecurity levy on all electronic transactions within the country.
The apex bank stated this in a circular signed by the Director of, the Payments System Management Department, Chibuzo Efobi; and the Director of, the Financial Policy and Regulation Department, Haruna Mustafa.
The circular, which was directed to all commercial, merchant, non-interest, and payment service banks, among others; noted that the implementation of the levy would start 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, ‘Cyber security Levy,’” the circular partly read.
Below are 16 banking transactions that are exempted from the CBN’s new cyber security levy:
- 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
- Other Financial Institutions instructions to their correspondent banks
- Interbank placements,
- Banks’ transfers to CBN and vice-versa
- Inter-branch transfers within a bank
- Cheque clearing and settlements
- Letters of Credits
- Banks’ recapitalisation-related funding – only bulk funds 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 e.g. 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 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.
