The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) released, on 6 May, 2024, Circular PSM/DIR/PUB/LAB/017/004 of 6 May 2024, in which it directed banks, financial organisations, payment service providers, and mobile money operators in Nigeria to enforce a 0.5% “Cybersecurity Levy” on all electronic transactions.
This levy is charged when the electronic transfer has originated and must be remitted monthly by the 5th of the subsequent month.
The Circular also includes a listing of several transactions that are exempt from this levy, which are as follows:
- 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’ (OFls) instructions to their correspondent banks.
- Interbank placements.
- Banks’ transfers to CBN and vice-versa.
- Inter-branch transfers within a bank.
- Cheques clearing and settlements.
- Letters of Credits (LCs).
- 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 programme transactions, e.g., pension payments.
- Non-profit and charitable transactions including donations to registered non-profit organisations or charities.
- Educational institution transactions, including tuition payments and other transactions involving schools, universities, or other educational institutions.
- Transactions involving a 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.
