All the banks in Nigeria have been instructed by the Central Bank of Nigeria to start charging a cybersecurity levy on transactions.
A circular received from the Central Bank of Nigeria on Monday directed to all commercial, merchant, non-interest, and payment service banks, among others. to begin to implement the levy in 13 days.
The circular showed that it was a follow-up on an earlier letter dated 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.
The Central Bank of Nigeria exempted loan disbursements and repayments, salary payments, intra-account transfers within the same bank or between different banks for the same customer, and intra-bank transfers between customers of the same bank from the levy.
Also delisted from the levy were inter-branch transfers within a bank, cheque clearing and settlements, Letters of Credits, and Banks’ recapitalisation-related funding only bulk funds movement from collection accounts, savings, and deposits including transactions involving long-term investments, among others.
Here are the five other transaction levies paid and the amount deducted on transactions between N1,000 and N1,000,000.
1. Cybersecurity levy
N5 is charged on the transaction of N1,000
N50 is charged on the transaction of N10,000
N500 is charged on the transaction of N100,000
N5,000 is charged on the transaction of N1,000,000
N50,000 is charged on the transaction of N10,000,000
2. Transfer fee
N10 is being charged on the transaction below N5,000
N25 is being charged on the transaction between 5,001 and N50,000
N50 is being charged on transactions above N50,000
3. Stamp duties
N50 is being charged on transactions between N10,000 and N10,000,000
4. Short Messaging Service (SMS)
N4 is being charged on each electronic transfer notification
NB: This is only applicable to customers on eligible electronic transactions. Those who opt for e-mailing services are not charged the same.
5. Value Added Tax
N0.75 is being charged on N10 transfer fee
N1.875 is being charged on the N25 transfer fee
N3.75 is being charged on the N50 transfer fee.
