The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has mandated all banks to begin charging a 0.5% cybersecurity levy on all electronic transactions, as stipulated in a new circular issued on Monday, May 6, 2024.
The directive, signed by the Director of the Payments System Management Department, Chibuzo Efobi, and the Director of the Financial Policy and Regulation Department, Haruna Mustafa, is aimed at bolstering cybersecurity measures in the financial sector.
The circular, which was addressed to all commercial, merchant, non-interest, and payment service banks, among others, outlines that the levy will be implemented two weeks from the issuance date.
According to the document, “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.’”
However, the CBN has also specified 16 types of banking transactions that will be exempted from this new levy:
1. Loan Disbursements and Repayments: Transactions related to loans will not be subjected to the cybersecurity levy.
2. Salary Payments: Salary disbursements through banks will remain unaffected by the levy.
3. Intra-account Transfers: Transfers within the same bank or across banks for the same customer are exempt.
4. Intra-bank Transfers: Transfers between customers of the same bank.
5. Other Financial Institutions: Instructions to correspondent banks from other financial institutions.
6. Interbank Placements: Transactions between different banks.
7. Banks’ Transfers to CBN and Vice-Versa: Movements of funds between banks and the central bank.
8. Inter-branch Transfers: Within the same bank.
9. Cheque Clearing and Settlements: Transactions involving cheque clearing.
10. Letters of Credits: Transactions related to letters of credit.
11. Banks’ Recapitalisation-Related Funding: Specifically bulk movements from collection accounts for recapitalization.
12. Savings and Deposits: Transactions involving savings, as well as long-term investments like Treasury Bills, Bonds, and Commercial Papers.
13. Government Social Welfare Programmes: Such as pension payments.
14. Non-profit and Charitable Transactions: Including donations to registered charities.
15. Educational Institutions’ Transactions: Including tuition payments and other school-related financial activities.
16. Transactions involving Bank’s Internal Accounts: Such as suspense, clearing, profit and loss accounts, inter-branch accounts, reserve accounts, nostro and vostro accounts, and escrow accounts.
