The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has directed deposit money banks in the country to start charging 0.5% cyber-security levy on transactions.
The directive was contained in a circular issued on Monday by the apex bank to all commercial, merchant, non-interest and payment service banks as well as mobile money operators and payment service providers.
Exempted from the levy include 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.
Also exempted from the levy were inter-branch transfers within a bank, cheque clearing and settlements, Letters of Credits, Banks’ recapitalisation-related funding only bulk funds movement from collection accounts, savings and deposits including transactions involving long-term investments, among others.
Recall that the apex bank recently stopped fintechs firms like Opay and Palmpay from onboarding new customers and directed banks to deduct 0.375 per cent stamp duty charge on all mortgaged-backed loans and bonds.
The implementation of the levy is to take effect in two weeks