The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has ordered all banks to begin imposing a 0.5% cybersecurity charge on all electronic transactions within the nation, with the exception of 16 designated financial agreements.
According to 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, cybersecurity will begin two weeks from May 6, 2024.
The top bank issued a circular directing all commercial, merchant, non-interest, and payment service banks, among others, to begin implementing cybersecurity charges two weeks after receiving the information.
The circular was partly read:
“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 named 16 financial transactions that were excluded from the new cybersecurity levy.
The exempted transactions are detailed below:
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.
cc: Vanguard Ng
