The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been instructed by the House of Representatives to immediately stop enforcing the cybersecurity tax in accordance with the cybercrime Act.
The House stated in its plenary on May 9 that the CBN’s circular was likely to be misunderstood by Nigerians because it contradicts the letter and spirit of section 44(2a) of the Cybercrime Act, which outlines who is required to pay the tax. On behalf of all parliamentarians, Minority Leader Kingsley Chinda (PDP, Rivers) presented a resolution of urgent public urgency, which was approved by the house.
The House asked the Central Bank to immediately withdraw its earlier circular on the implementation of the levy and issue a more understable one.
Chinda argued that section 44(2a) of the cybercrime act listed those to pay the stipulated fees as GSM and telecom companies, Internet providers, Banks and other financial institutions, insurance companies and Stocks Exchange.
He explained that the circular from the CBN has raised apprehension across the country as it has given the impression that the levy is to be paid by Nigerians in an era when they are still battling with increase in price of petroleum products among others.
The apex bank in a circular dated May 6, 2024 ordered all commercial, merchant, non-interest and payment service banks as well as mobile money operators and payment service providers to start charging 0.5% cybersecurity levy on some transactions done by their customers. The apex bank said the new levy, expected to kick off in two weeks time, will not be applied on transactions such as 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.
