The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Wednesday directed all Mobile Money Operators (MMOs) and other affected payment service providers (PSPs) to comply with the statutory provision for the collection and remittance of the 0.005 levy on all electronic transaction by the business specified in the second schedule of the section 44 (S 1 and 2) of the cybercrime (prohibition, prevention ,etc) Act 2015.
In a circular to MMOs and other PSPs on Compliance With The Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) ACT 2015: Collection and Remittance of Levy for the National Cyber Security Fund, signed by Dipo Fatokun, director banking and payments system department, the CBN issued a guide on the implementation.
The guide stated that the levy shall be 0.005 of the service charge (exclusive of all tax effects) from all electronic financial transactions occurring in a bank, a mobile money schemes or other payment platforms.
Also, all electronic transactions (both inter or intra) that have an accompanying service charge shall qualify as eligible transactions.
The effective date for collection shall be with effect from July 1, 2018 and all levies imposed under the Act should be remitted to the nominated T24 account number 0020538861023 domiciled in the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Operators are expected to remit the levy on a monthly basis using the effective date or date of commencement of business as the base month. “For this purpose, the fifth business day of every subsequent month shall be the latest date of remittance”, the circular reads.
“there are many provisions in some of our statutes in Nigeria that seek to curb and punish fraudsters but Cybercrime Prohibition Act, 2015 is current and most relevant, and specific to the offences around electronic fraud”, said Ibraheem Adeka Atukpa, principal policy analyst at CBN.
