President Bola Tinubu has been given 48 hours ultimatum to direct the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to withdraw the 0.5 percent cybersecurity levy on all electronic transfers.
The ultimatum was given to the president by Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP).
The ultimatum is in response to a directive by CBN mandating banks and other financial institutions to implement a 0.5 per cent cybersecurity levy on electronic transfers.
By the directive, bank customers in the country will begin the payment of the levy on all electronic transfers in the next two weeks.
What this means is that for a transfer of N50,000, N250 will be deducted from your account as cybersecurity levy.
For N100,000, the levy will be N500, while for N1m, it will be N5,000.
But in a statement made available to NewsNGR on Tuesday, SERAP stated that the levy ‘patently’ violates the provisions of the Nigerian Constitution 1999 (as amended) and the country’s international human rights obligations and commitments.
The organisation called on Tinubu to stop Nuhu Ribadu and the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) from implementing section 44 and other repressive provisions of the Cybercrimes Act 2024 as it violates the provisions of the Nigerian Constitution and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which Nigeria is a state party.
SERAP also asked the president to direct the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, to prepare and present a bill to amend section 44 and other “repressive provisions of the Cybercrimes Act 2024 to the National Assembly so that those provisions can be brought in line with the Nigerian Constitution and the country’s international human rights obligations.”
The statement signed by SERAP Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, said that criminalizing the non-payment of the cybersecurity levy by Nigerians under Section 44(8) is unlawful and constitutional.
It read partly: “If the unlawful CBN directive is not withdrawn and appropriate steps are not taken to amend the repressive provisions of the Cybercrimes Act within 48 hours, SERAP shall consider appropriate legal actions to compel the Tinubu administration to comply with our request in the public interest.”
“Withdrawing the unlawful CBN directive and repealing the repressive provisions of the Cybercrimes Act 2024 will be entirely consistent with president Tinubu’s constitutional oath of office requires public officials to uphold the provisions of the constitution, and the rule of law and abstain from all improper acts.”
“The repressive provisions of the Cybercrimes Act 2024 are clearly inconsistent and incompatible with the public trust and the overall objectives of the Constitution. A false oath lacks truth and justice. The oath statements require the oath takers to commit to uphold and defend the Constitution.”
“Section 14(2)(b) of the Nigerian Constitution of 1999 [as amended] provides that, ‘the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.”
“The CBN yesterday has directed banks and other financial institutions to implement a 0.5 percent cybersecurity levy on electronic transfers on the basis of the section 44 44(2)(a) of the Cybercrimes Act 2024 purportedly imposing a “a levy of 0.005 equivalent to a half percent of all electronic transactions value by the business specified in the second schedule of the Act.”
“The money is to be remitted to the National Cybersecurity Fund (NCF), which shall be administered by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).”
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