Details have emerged over the weekend on why President Bola Tinubu instructed the Office of National Security Adviser (ONSA) to suspend the implementation of the cybersecurity levy policy.
A reliable presidency source on Sunday, May 12, said President Tinubu directed the suspension of the policy because the National Security Adviser (NSA) did not get the proper approval before embarking on the implementation of that provision of the Cybersecurity Act.
The source further revealed that the President is abreast of the current economic situation in the country and would not wish that the situation is compounded with new taxes, hence his reason for directing the proper authority in the implementation of the provision, the ONSA, to hold back.
President Tinubu was reported over the weekend to have instructed the suspension of the implementation of the provision policy.
This followed widespread negative reaction to the new instruction with the National Assembly also calling for the suspension of the implementation.
Confirming the development to The Nation on Sunday, the Presidency source, who preferred anonymity, said the implementation or suspension order was an ONSA affair as the Act is directly related to the office and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) just playing the middle role.
He said President Tinubu gave the suspension directive because he would not want Nigerians to be over-burdened with economic pressures.
He further noted that had the proper consultations for approval were sought, the level would not have been an issue at the moment, considering the economic situation that citizens are currently having to content with.
“He didn’t order CBN. That is a wrong slant. It is a not a CBN action, It is an ONSA action, CBN only issued circular to banks as implementing institutions
“The President simply stopped the implementation for now so as not to put extra burden on Nigerians. NSA also didn’t get his approval before implementing the provision of the Cybersecurity Act
“It is wrong to say he ordered CBN to stop, CBN is not the originator of the action. It is NSA”, the source said.
The CBN had on May 6, 2024, issued a circular to concerned financial institutions, informing of the plan to start implementation of the National Cybersecurity Fund (NCF), which will be administered by the ONSA.
“Following the enactment of the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) (amendment) Act 2024 and under the provision of Section 44 (2)(a) of the Act, a levy of 0.5 per cent (0.005) equivalent to a half per cent of all electronic transactions value by the business specified in the Second Schedule of the Act.
“The levy shall be applied at the point of electronic transfer origination, then deducted and remitted by the financial institution. The deducted amount shall be reflected in the customer’s account with the narration, ‘Cybersecurity Levy’”, it said.
Meanwhile, reacting to the wind that gathered around the Cybersecurity Levy, Chairman of the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, Taiwo Oyedele, said the Act, which originated from 2015, belongs in the category of old laws that his Committee is working on, assuring that it would be sorted out along the line.
“The law you’re talking about, I’m sure you’re referring to the Cyber Security Levy, is a law of 2015. So these are the past issues we’re trying to deal with. That law was recently amended, but even the levy was in the original 2015 version, so you can talk about the rates.
“We have to admit and recognize that these problems will not disappear overnight, it’s work in progress. We have not even submitted our work to the National Assembly.
“So our expectation is, as we progress now from ideation, proposal to implementation, you’ll see less and less of those issues and then you’ll see that harmony in the direction of the fiscal system, not only in the number of taxes we collect being very few, with threshold for poor people and small businesses, you will also see an improvement in how those monies are being spent in terms of priority of spending, in terms of the efficiency of spending, and then in terms of focusing on what impacts on the lives of majority of our population who live in multi-dimensional poverty. That is the direction we’re going and we’re positive about that”, he said.(The Nation)
