All banks in Nigeria have been directed by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to collect and remit a 0.5 per cent cyber security levy to the office of the National Security Adviser.
This directive was made public by the directors of Payment System Management and Financial Policy and Regulation Departments at the CBN, Chibuzor Efobi and Haruna Mustafa.
Below is a compilation of transactions that are exempt from cybersecurity charges:
1. Loan disbursements and repayments
2. Salary payments
3. Intra-account transfers within the same bank or between different banks for the same customer
4. Intra-bank transfers between customers of the same bank
5. Other Financial Institutions (OFIs) instructions to their correspondent
6. Banks’ Interbank placements
7. Banks’ transfers to CBN and vice-versa
8. Inter-branch transfers within a bank
9. Cheques clearing and settlements
10. Letters of Credits (LCs)
11. Banks’ recapitalization related funding – only bulk funds movement from collection accounts
12. Savings and deposits including transactions involving long-term investments such as Treasury Bills, Bonds, and Commercial Papers.
13. Government Social Welfare Programs transactions e.g. Pension payments
14. Non-profit and charitable transactions including donations to registered nonprofit organisations or charities.
15. Educational Institutions transactions, including tuition payments and other transactions involving schools, universities, or other educational institutions.
16. 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.
