The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has ordered financial institutions to start collecting a 0.005% levy on all electronic transactions, effective within the next two weeks.
This means that when customers check their transaction history, they will see a separate entry for the cybersecurity levy, helping them to understand that this charge is distinct from their regular transaction costs.
The CBN also provided further instructions to financial institutions through a circular. In the circular, which was posted on the CBN’s website on Monday, the bank instructed that all financial institutions—including commercial, merchant, non-interest, and Payment Service Banks, mobile money operators, and payment service providers—must pool the collected levies and remit them to the National Cybersecurity Fund (NCF) account by the 5th business day of each subsequent month.
Beyond the monthly reporting requirements, the CBN also set strict timelines for financial institutions to reconfigure their systems to enable timely and accurate submission of levies to the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS). Commercial, merchant, non-interest, and Payment Service Banks and mobile money operators were given a deadline of four weeks to adjust their systems, while other financial institutions—Micro-Finance Banks (MFBs), Primary Mortgage Banks (PMBs) and Development Finance Institutions—were allotted eight weeks to complete their reconfigurations.
The CBN emphasised that the Act, “prescribes that failure to remit the levy is an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of not less than 2% of the annual turnover of the defaulting businesses amongst others.”
The CBN clarified that the cybersecurity levy does not apply to certain types of transactions, offering exemptions for specific activities. These include loan disbursements and repayments, salary payments, intra-account transfers between the same customer’s accounts within the same bank or different banks, intra-bank transfers between customers of the same bank, cheque clearing and settlement, and Letters of Credit.