- Nigerian banks, including Access, UBA, and Zenith, will begin a new debits on customers account as ordered by the CBN
- The new charges on customers' accounts, CBN explained will be used to strengthen the country's cybersecurity
- The funds generated will then be remitted to the federal government account to set up the necessary infrastructure
Legit.ng journalist Dave Ibemere has over a decade of business journalism experience with in-depth knowledge of the Nigerian economy, stocks, and general market trends.
The Central Bank of Nigeria has ordered financial institutions to implement a 0.5% cybersecurity levy on transactions.
A circular from the apex bank dated Monday, May 6, 2024, disclosed that the deduction would start two weeks from today.
What is the CBN saying?
The directive is for all types of banks - commercial, merchant, non-interest, and payment service banks.
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It applies to other financial institutions, mobile money operators, and payment service providers.
The CBN also explained that the directive is a follow-up to an earlier directive issued on June 25, 2018 (Ref: BPS/DIR/GEN/CIR/05/008) and October 5, 2018 (Ref: BSD/DIR/GEN/LAB/11/023), respectively, on compliance with the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc.) Act 2015, but has not been fully implemented Punch reports.
CBN circular reads:
“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 fifth business day of every subsequent month.”
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However, it is important to note that not all transactions will incur debits. Exempted transactions encompass 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, instructions from Other financial institutions to their correspondent banks, interbank placements, and transfers between banks and the CBN and vice versa.
FG seeks to boost revenue
The federal government is desperate to boost its non-oil revenue.
A new directive was recently issued to Deposit Money Banks to immediately begin deducting the 0.375% stamp duty charge on all mortgaged-backed loans and bonds.
Banks to debit debtors' bank accounts
Legit.ng earlier reported that the CBN governor, Olayemi Cardoso, revealed that over N10 trillion has been loaned to customers under various intervention schemes.
CBN data showed that between September and October 2022, the apex bank disbursed about N41.02 billion to several agricultural projects under the Anchor Borrowers' Programme (ABP).
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The total disbursement under the ABP scheme amounts to N1.07 trillion, which is distributed to about 4.6 million smallholder farmers growing 21 commodities nationwide.
Source: Legit.ng
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