SERAP gives FG 48hrs to reverse 0.5% cybersecurity levy

SERAP urged the CCB and ICPC to prosecute Governor Okorocha after leaving office if there was relevant and sufficient admissible evidence of abuse of public office against him

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has issued a warning to the federal government to reverse the 0.5 per cent cybersecurity levy imposed by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The nonprofit group threatened to take the government to court should the directive not be withdrawn in the next 48 hours.

SERAP made this known in a post on its official X handle on Tuesday.

“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,” the group said.

“We’ll see in court if the directive is not withdrawn within 48 hours,” it added.

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In the next two weeks, banks in Nigeria will start charging a 0.5 per cent cybersecurity levy on electronic transfers, following a directive from the CBN.

The CBN made the announcement in a circular signed by Chibuzor Efobi, the director of payments system management, and Haruna Mustafa, the director of financial policy and regulation.

The circular was directed to all commercial, merchant, non-interest and payment service banks, among others.

The deduction and collection of the cybersecurity levy is a sequel to the enactment of the 2024 Cybercrime (prohibition, prevention etc) Amendment Act of 2024, the CBN revealed.

Wasiu Alli

Wasiu Alli is a business, economics cum data journalist with strong expertise covering macro trends, capital markets, government policies, corporate earnings and comparative economics analysis. Alli turns raw data into trends that not only tells compelling stories but nudges investors to make valued and informed decisions. He’s an alumnus of Lagos State University and trained at Lagos Business School. He formerly heads the Companies and Markets desk at BusinessDay where he writes and supervises the production of well researched articles on earnings updates, corporate sectoral comparisons, market intelligence as well as interviews with C-suite executives.