The Central Bank of Nigeria,, CBN has mandated all banks and other financial institutions to levy a 0.5% cybersecurity charge on all electronic transactions within the country with effect from Monday, May 20, 2024
However, not all banking transactions will be subjected to the levy as there are 16 transactions exempted from the CBN’s new cybersecurity levy.
The exempted transactions are:
- 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
- Other Financial Institutions instructions to their correspondent banks
- Interbank placements
- Banks’ transfers to CBN and vice-versa
- Inter-branch transfers within a bank
- Cheque clearing and settlements
- Letters of Credits
- 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 transactions involving schools, universities, or other educational institutions
- 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.
According to the apex bank, the exemption list aims to provide clarity on the specific transactions that will not be subject to the new cybersecurity levy and it is intended to ensure that essential financial activities remain unaffected while enhancing cybersecurity measures across electronic transactions in Nigeria.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
