A circular issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria on Monday directed all commercial, merchant, non-interest and payment service banks to begin charging 0.5% cybersecurity levy on transactions as part of efforts to contain the rising cybercrime threats in the financial system.
The circular stated that it was a follow-up on an earlier letter dated June 25, 2018 (Ref: BPS/DIR/GEN/CIR/05/008) and October 5, 2018 (Ref: BSD/DIR/GEN/LAB/11/023), in compliance with the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc.) Act 2015.
It however exempted some transactions from cybercrime levy.
The exemptions included 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, and Other Financial Institutions (OFIs) instructions to their correspondent banks.
The exemption also applies to interbank placements, banks’ transfers to CBN and vice versa, inter-branch transfers within a bank, cheque clearing and settlements, and Letters of Credit (LCs).
Others include 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 transaction 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, are also exempt from the levy.
The central bank warned that Section 44 (8) of the Act prescribes that failure to remit the levy constitutes an offence punishable on conviction by a fine of not less than two percent of the defaulting business’s annual turnover, among other things.
The new levy is a statutory requirement in the amendment to the Cybercrime Act, which President Bola Tinubu signed into law in February 2024.
Senator Shehu Umar Buba, the Senate Committee on National Intelligence and Security Chairman, sponsored the Act’s amendments.
