The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has issued a warning to the Federal Government to reverse the 0.5 per cent cybersecurity levy imposed by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
SERAP also threatened to institute legal action against the government if it failed to reverse the levy within a 48-hour timeframe.
The non-governmental organization made this known on Tuesday via its Twitter handle, calling for the immediate reversal of what it regarded as levy ‘imposition’.
“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“We’ll see in court if the directive is not withdrawn within 48 hours.” The tweet reads.
Recall that the Central Bank of Nigeria has ordered banks operating in the country to start charging a cybersecurity levy on transactions.
A circular from the apex bank on Monday 6 May revealed that the implementation of the levy would begin two weeks from the day of the notice.
The circular was directed to all commercial, merchant, non-interest and payment service banks, among others.
The circular disclosed that it was a follow-up on an earlier letter dated June 25, 2018 (Ref: BPS/DIR/GEN/CIR/05/008) and October 5, 2018 (Ref: BSD/DIR/GEN/LAB/11/023), respectively, on compliance with the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc.) Act 2015.
