CBN Governor,  Yemi Cardoso A financial expert, Prof. Uche Uwaleke says the newly introduced 0.5 per cent charges on electronic transactions as cybersecurity levy by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is ill-timed.

Uwaleke, a professor of capital market and the president of the Capital Market Academics of Nigeria, said this in an interview on Tuesday in Abuja.

According to him, the cybersecurity levy is ill-timed, coming at a time when the CBN is concerned about the high rate of financial exclusion and the increasing rate of currency circulating outside the banks.

He said that it carried the downside risk of discouraging financial intermediation as well as complicating the transmission of monetary policy with more people shunning the banks due to high charges.

“The end result is that it makes difficult effort by the CBN to tame inflation.

“So, I think the circular should be withdrawn, especially against the backdrop of assurances by the government that its plan to increase revenue would not include introducing new taxes or increasing tax rates.

“To this end, the government should suspend the policy while getting set to implement the recommendations of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms,” he said.

He said that the mandate of the committee included streamlining multiple taxes and levies currently inhibiting the growth of businesses in Nigeria.

NAN reports that the CBN had on Monday directed all banks to commence charging a 0.5 per cent cybersecurity levy on all electronic transactions within the country.

The direcve was contained in a circular jointly signed by the Director, Payments System Management Department, Chibuzo Efobi; and the Director, Financial Policy and Regulation Department, Haruna Mustafa.

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

It announced that the implementation of the levy would start two weeks from May 6.

“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,’” the circular said.

However, some 16 banking transactions were exempted from the new cybersecurity levy.

They include loan disbursements and repayments, salary payments, intra-account transfers within the same bank or between different banks for the same customer, intra-bank transfers between customers of the same bank among others.

By the calculations of the new levy, five Naira will be charged on a transaction of N1,000, while N50 will be charged on a transaction of N10,000.

Others are N500 charge on a transaction of N100,000, N5,000 charge on a transaction of N1,000,000, and N50,000 charge on a transaction of N10,000,000.

The cybersecurity levy will now be added to already existing bank charges like transfer fee, stamp duty, charges on SMS, and Vat .(NAN)

From Anthony Nwachukwu, Lagos

Operators of the APM Terminal Apapa have cried out to regulatory authorities as no fewer than 616 export containers have been abandoned inside the terminal for about 1000 days, causing both space constraint and economic losses.Disclosing the company’s plight to the Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Mr.

Pius Akutah, the Terminal Manager, Mr. Steen Knudsen, said the terminal derives value from export cargoes they are shipped out within the best possible time.However, “as we speak, we have 616 export-laden containers that have spent between 31 and 1000 days inside our terminal. This impacts our ability to receive more export containers because we have to do multiple re-handling of these export containers,” he stated.To end the ugly trend, Akutah said he would meet with the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) “and other relevant stakeholders to see how we can stop this abandoning of export boxes inside the port. In this period when the government is looking at improving the nation’s export potential, all hands must be on deck.”Knudson had explained that the company derives value from export operations only “when export cargoes arrive and are shipped out of the terminal by the shipping companies within the shortest period, not where export boxes arrive and just sit here inside the port for years.”Lamenting the lack of strict compliance with the process, Knudsen stated that the NPA has established Export Processing Terminals (EPTs) to handle export goods.However, “we still see trucks carrying export cargoes heading straight to the port without going through these EPTs. That’s why many of them get into the port and get abandoned because they have not gone through the normal process before entering the port.“These export containers might not end up leaving the port because they have spent close to three years inside the port. Most of their contents would have lost value.”He further explained that export cargoes that by-passed the EPTs were not turned back because “once a truck bringing in an export container arrives at our gate, it is difficult to turn such a container back due to our location.“It is when the container gets into the port and the various government agencies run necessary checks that it is discovered to have not gone through the right processes. At this point, it is left inside the port.“What we have been able to do now is to extend that checking area up to the NPA Gate so that any truck coming in with an export container without going through the normal process can be turned back from that point.”He regretted that the absence of a laid-down auction process for export containers by the Nigeria Customs Service has led to some abandoned containers lying in the port for about three years.

By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
Nigerians are holding onto cash at an unprecedented rate, with a staggering 94 percent of the country’s currency outside the banking system.
This was revealed by the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) in its latest March, 2024 Money and Statistics data.
According to the data on the CBN website, the amount of physical money M1 in circulation has skyrocketed compared to the previous year.

In January 2024, it stood at N3. 65 trillion, more than double the N1.39 trillion recorded in January 2023.
This trend continued throughout the quarter, with March 2024 reaching N3.87 trillion, a 130 percent increase from the previous year.
This significant rise suggests the CBN has pumped more cash into the system, likely in response to the scarcity issues plaguing 2023.
While the CBN injects more cash, the amount held outside banks is growing even faster.
January 2024 saw N3.28 trillion outside the banking system, compared to N792.18 billion just a year prior.
By March 2024, this figure had skyrocketed to a concerning N3.63 trillion, a 150 percent increase year-on-year.
This indicates Nigerians are hoarding cash at a rate exceeding the CBN’s efforts to increase circulation.