Despite an early public suspension of the charge, THE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced that it will keep enforcing a 0.005% cybercrime levy on all electronic transactions made by the nation’s financial institutions.
The CBN noted this in a new document released on Tuesday, September 17, titled “Monetary, Credit, Foreign Trade, and Exchange Policy Guidelines for Fiscal Years 2024-2025 document.”
It said, “The CBN shall continue to enforce the payment of the mandatory levy of 0.005 percent on all electronic transactions by banks and other financial institutions, in accordance with the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act, 2015.”
The judgment was supported by a circular that was released on October 10, 2018, titled “Issuance of Risk-based Cybersecurity Framework and Guidelines for Deposit Money Banks and Payment Service Providers,” with reference to BSD/DIR/GEN/LAB/11/25.
It noted that banks and Payment Service Providers (PSPs) must abide by the rules on the risk-based cyber security framework in order to counteract the growing cyber security threat in the banking sector.
In support of its position, the top bank also highlighted another circular, “Issuance of Risk-based Cybersecurity Framework and Guidelines for Other Financial Institutions (OFIs),” which it issued on June 29, 2022, and referred as OFI/DOA/CON/ACT/004/155.
It said, “The guidelines specified the minimum cyber security baseline to be implemented by banks, OFIs, and PSPs and mandated the appointment of a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) to oversee cyber security issues.”
The Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) (Amendment) Act 2024 established the cybersecurity levy, which stipulates that a 0.005% fee on the total value of all electronic transactions will be collected and sent to the National Cybersecurity Fund, which will be managed by the Office of the National Security Adviser.
The top bank ordered financial institutions to pay a 0.005% cybercrime levy on all transactions in May this year, but Nigerians were not happy with the directive.
Others had contended that imposing it would make matters worse for Nigerians, who were already burdened with an array of taxes.
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