The Central Bank of Nigeria has asked banks to levy a 0.5 per cent cybersecurity charge on electronic transactions effective May 20.

The directive —- which the apex bank said was only a follow-up on previous circulars issued in June (Ref: BPS/DIR/GEN/CIR/05/008) and October 2018 (Ref:BSD/DIR/GEN/LAB/11/023) —- is to be remitted to the National Cybersecurity Fund (NCF) and administered by the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) under Nuhu Ribadu’s leadership.

“A levy of 0.5 per cent (0.005) equivalent to a half per cent of all electronic transactions value by the business specified in the Second Schedule of the Act is to be remitted to the National Cybersecurity Fund which shall be administered by the Office of the National Security Adviser,” a CBN circular indicated on Monday.

The CBN clarified that the levy would be separately “reflected in the customer’s account” as “Cybersecurity Levy” and “applied at the point of electronic transfer origination, then deducted and remitted by the financial institution.”

The apex bank exempted tuition fee transactions at all educational levels including primary, secondary and university from paying the levy.

Additionally, 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.

The exempted category further includes bank transfers to and from CBN, cheque clearing, letters of credit, “savings and deposits including long-term investments” like treasury bills, bonds and commercial papers.

Errant financial institutions who disobey the CBN would forfeit two per cent of their annual turnover to the apex bank.