The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has given the Federal Government 48 hours to withdraw the 0.5% ‘cybersecurity levy’ imposed on Nigerians.
On Tuesday, SERAP posted a statement on its official X (formerly Twitter), threatening to drag the Federal Government to court if the new cybersecurity levy is not reversed.
The statement reads, “The Tinubu administration must immediately withdraw the grossly unlawful CBN directive to implement section 44 of the Cybercrime Act 2024, which imposes a 0.5% ‘cybersecurity levy’ on Nigerians. We’ll see in court if the directive is not withdrawn within 48 hours.’’
On Monday, the Central Bank of Nigeria shared a circular to all banks to levy a 0.5% cybersecurity charge on electronic transactions, to be effective from May 20th, 2024.
According to the apex bank, 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.”
