The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has threatened to sue the Federal Government, if directive on the 0.5 per cent cybersecurity levy imposed on Nigerian people is not withdrawn.
SERAP, in a statement via its official X, made this known in reaction to the Central bank of Nigeria (CBN) directives to commercial banks and other financial institutions to start charging cybersecurity levy.
Read Also: Bank To Charge Costumers Cybersecurity Levy On All Electronic Transactions
Top Society earlier reports that the apex bank had on Monday mandated banks to charge the cybersecurity levy on Nigerians for online transactions two weeks from now.
The apex bank, however, exempted 16 listed banking transactions from its new cybersecurity levy.
While making clarifications, the CBN said 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.”’
Reacting to the new development, SERAP threatened to drag the FG if the “grossly unlawful” directive by the CBN is not reversed.
The statement read,
“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 We’ll see in court if the directive is not withdrawn within 48 hours.’’
