The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has directed all banks to commence charging a 0.5 percent cybersecurity levy on all electronic transactions within the country.
According to the circular, the levy will be applied at the point of electronic transfer origination, then deducted and remitted by the financial institution. The deducted amount will be reflected in the customer’s account with the narration, ‘Cybersecurity Levy.’
However, there are 16 banking transactions exempted from the CBN’s new cybersecurity levy. They are as follows:
1. Loan disbursements and repayments
2. Salary payments
3. Intra-account transfers within the same bank or between different banks for the same customer
4. Intra-bank transfers between customers of the same bank
5. Other Financial Institutions instructions to their correspondent banks
6. Interbank placements
7. Banks’ transfers to CBN and vice-versa
8. Inter-branch transfers within a bank
9. Cheque clearing and settlements
10. Letters of Credits
11. Banks’ recapitalisation-related funding – only bulk funds movement from collection accounts
12. Savings and deposits, including transactions involving long-term investments such as Treasury Bills, Bonds, and Commercial Papers.
13. Government Social Welfare Programmes transactions e.g. Pension payments
14. Non-profit and charitable transactions, including donations to registered non-profit organisations or charities
15. Educational institutions’ transactions, including tuition payments and other transactions involving schools, universities, or other educational institutions
16. Transactions involving 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.