In a circular signed by Chibuzor Efobi, the director of payments system management, and Haruna Mustafa, the director of financial policy and regulation, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) directed all commercial, merchant, non-interest, and payment service banks, mobile money operators, and other financial institutions to comply with a cybersecurity levy.
This directive follows earlier communications in 2018 regarding compliance with the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc.) Act 2015. The cybersecurity levy, enacted following the 2024 Cybercrime (prohibition, prevention, etc.) Amendment Act, will be applied to electronic transfers and collected by financial institutions.
However, certain transactions will be exempt from this levy to prevent multiple applications on the same transfer. These exempt transactions include loan disbursements and repayments, salary payments, intra-account transfers within or between different banks for the same customer, interbank placements, cheque clearing, and settlements, among others. The CBN emphasized that failure to remit the levy will result in penalties, including fines of at least two percent of the defaulting business’s annual turnover.
Source: Business Day