The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has directed banks and other financial institutions in the country to start charging a 0.5% cybersecurity levy on electronic transactions.
This directive is in line with the recently enacted Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) (Amendment) Act 2024, which requires a 0.5% levy on electronic transactions to be remitted to the National Cybersecurity Fund administered by the Office of the National Security Adviser.
The levy will be applied at the point of electronic transfer origination and deducted by the financial institution, with the deducted amount reflected in the customer’s account as a “Cybersecurity Levy”.
Deductions are set to commence within two weeks from the date of the CBN circular, and the collected levies will be remitted in bulk to the NCF account at the CBN by the fifth business day of every subsequent month.
Certain transactions are exempted from the levy, including loan disbursements and repayments, salary payments, intra-account transfers, inter-branch transfers, cheque clearing, and long-term investments.
Failure to remit the levy is an offence punishable by a fine of not less than 2% of the defaulting institution’s annual turnover.
This directive is part of the CBN’s ongoing efforts to strengthen the financial sector’s cybersecurity measures and comply with the Cybercrime Act.
