Nigerians Kick Against CBN’s New Cyber Security Levy

Posted by African Examiner Crime Watch, Exclusive Reports, Exclusive/Investigative Stories, Featured, Latest Headlines Tuesday, May 7th, 2024

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The decision by the Central Bank of Nigeria to introduce a 0.5 per cent cybersecurity levy to be charged on all bank transactions has sparked reactions on social media.

The African Examiner writes that the Central Bank of Nigeria on Monday, issued a circular to all commercial, merchant, non-interest, and payment service banks, among others; adding that the implementation of the levy would begin two weeks from Monday, May 6, 2024.

The circular stated partly: “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.”

This levy will be paid by the originator of the electronic transaction and deducted by the bank. The deducted amount will reflect in the customer’s account with the narration, “Cybersecurity Levy”.

Later, the levy will be deducted by financial institutions and remitted to the National Cybersecurity Fund administered by the Office of the National Security Adviser.

Reacting to this development, some netizens took to their X accounts formerly Twitter complaining about the high rate of levies being paid to Nigerian banks and they also slammed the President Bola Tinubu administration for “milking” the poor. The African Examiner gathers some of their thoughts below:

AfricanCityzen writes: “How many charges does the common man need to pay?? ATM Maintenance VAT Text Message Charge and now Cyber Security charge This is nothing but Robbery.”

kpotin1 writes: “Jesus Christ!!! As usual, we will scream online and do nothing about it.”

Adonis4all writes: “This is just the beginning. Allowing a tax extractor cheat his way to power is our greatest undoing. We will soon pay for the air we breath daily.”

@frankystalker writes: “Tinubu developed Lagos” lol. He’s”developing” Nigeria too. For people in Lagos, we’ve always known his brand of governance…tax to oblivion. You all haven’t seen anything yet.”
@DiohaRachael writes: “Na to dig ground hide my money. I can’t continue like this. Let me reverse to old method.”

@Morris_Monye writes:”The CBN has directed all banks to impose a 0.5% cybersecurity levy on all transactions The monies is to be remitted to the office of the National Security Adviser. Why please? What’s the purpose?”

@donearlylife writes: “There’s ATM maintenance charges, AND THEN THERE’S ALMIGHTY NEW CYBER SECURITY LEVY Vat charges stamp duty charges Electronic transfer level charges Also 6.98 charges for ussd transfers This is different from transfer charge attached to any amount you want to send through your account We keep on paying tax yet nothing to show for it.”

@Iykonwuka writes: “This is Tinubu. That’s how he operates. He will add more to almost everything. To some people it might sound like it is not a lot but when you multiply it with over 50 million transactions that happens every day in Nigeria. That figure becomes astronomical. We are in for a very long and bumpy ride:”

@otosbyOche writes: “So basically anything we transfer money now the government gets a cut, this is where we are now in history.”

@ewii_legit writes: “Widening the tax net to reduce the purchasing power of the people. He said it, now it’s happening. Tinubu style of leadership always takes away from the people without adding anything to them.”

@eugeneohu writes” This is wrong. These is enough hardship in the land. There are also many other sources of fund the government can target for this. This is double, triple…taxation of a hapless people.