The bank earlier directed all banks to charge a 0.5 per cent cybersecurity levy on all electronic transactions within the country starting two weeks from 6 May.

“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’,” it said.

The directive and the exemption list were contained in a circular signed by the Director, Payments System Management Department, Chibuzo Efobi; and the Director, Financial Policy and Regulation Department, Haruna Mustafa.


Below is the list of the exempted banking transactions:

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

Other Financial Institutions instructions to their correspondent banks
Interbank placements

Banks’ transfers to CBN and vice-versa

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 such as Treasury Bills, Bonds, and Commercial Papers.

Government Social Welfare Programmes transactions e.g. Pension payments

Non-profit and charitable transactions, including donations to registered non-profit organisations or charities

Educational institutions’ transactions, including tuition payments and other transactions involving schools, universities, or other educational institutions

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.



© 2024 The Premium Times, Nigeria

Every Nigerian should have an account with every commercial bank.😀

Intra-account transfers within the same bank or between different banks for the same customer

Intra-bank transfers between customers of the same bank

They should just allow the poor to breathe

Is this implementable? The best thing is to reverse the thoughtless levy immediately.