The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has instructed all banks to impose a 0.5% cyber security levy on all transactions. And this goes to all merchant, commercial, non-interest and payment service banks. And other financial institutions, mobile money operators and payment service providers.
And just so you know, the cyber security levy is not new. It was in the original cyber security act 2015 as signed into law by President GEJ. The provision was always there but never implemented. The decision to implement is that of the administration.
The Central Bank of Nigeria is the monetary authority of Nigeria. And was established in 1965. Over the years. CBN has performed major development functions, focused on all the key sectors of the Nigerian economy (agricultural, industrial and financial sector).
In this article, I will tell you the things you need to know about CBN’s cyber security levy. Keep reading on.
Schedule Of Exemptions From Cybersecurity Levy.
- Salary payments.
- Loan disbursements and reayments.
- Interbank placements.
- 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 (OFIs) instructions to their corresponding banks.
- Banks’ transfer to CBN and vice-versa.
- Interbank transfers within a bank.
- Cheques clearing and settlements.
- Letter of Credits (LCs).
- Banks’ recapitalization related funding- only bulk funds movement from collection accounts.
- Savings and deposits including transactions involving long-term investments such as treasury bills and commercial papers.
- Government social welfare programs transactions like 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 school, 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.
Penalties For Non-Compliance.
Section 44 (8) of the Act prescribes that failure to remit the levy is an offence and is liable on conviction to fine of not less than 2% of the annual turnover of the defaulting business, amongst others.
Things To Know About CBN’s Cybersecurity Levy.
- The levy shall be applied at the point of electronic transfer origination, then deducted and remitted by the financial institution.
- The deducted amount shall be reflected in the customer’s account with the narration “Cybersecurity Levy”.
- Deductions shall commence within two weeks from the date of this circular for all financial institutions and the monthly remittance of the levies collected in bulk to the NCF account domiciled at the CBN by the 5th business day of every subsequent month.
- System reconfiguration towards ensuring complete and timely submission of remittance files to the Nigeria Interbank Settlements System (NIBSS) Plc shall be completed as follows:
- Within four weeks of the circular- commercial, merchant, non-interest and payment service banks; and mobile money operators.
- Within eight weeks of this circular- all other financial institutions (mortgage banks, microfinance, development finance institution).
SEE ALSO:
How To Identify A Fake Naira Note.
History Of The Nigerian Naira.
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