What a nation: “In a move said to be aimed at fortifying Nigeria’s digital defenses, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has issued a directive mandating financial institutions to enact a cybersecurity levy. This levy, amounting to 0.5% of the value of all electronic transactions, is intended to boost the National Cyber Security Fund administered by the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA).”
We’re already paying NITDA Levy (information technology), ITF (training), TETFUND (education), and now Cybersecurity Levy, besides other auxiliary fees. I expect by 2027 for a Federal Labour Levy to be enacted to help pay salaries of workers.
Nigeria does not need this playbook. What we need is to GROW the economy so that corporate taxes can take care of these auxiliary fees. America waived online sales taxes for more than a decade to grow the ecommerce sector, knowing that when companies like Amazon ascend, all the lost taxes would be made up.
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In other words, there is a clear plan with a big picture. We need to learn something because this piecemeal disparate approach of charging this and that, as fees, on people’s properties, seems non-optimal in my view. Taking 0.5% is a lot of money, and it makes the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) the most investable fintech in Nigeria if it is open for investments.
Meanwhile, the plan to register POS agents in Nigeria is a good policy. There is no more room in Nigeria for informal players: “Nigeria’s 1.9 million PoS agents are now required to register with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) by the Federal Government to tackle fraud and enhance financial inclusion. This move, which includes providing a unique terminal identification number to each PoS agent and may require Know Your Customer (KYC) documents for certain transactions, is expected to be completed within a two-month timeline with the support of fintech companies.”
What a nation: “In a move said to be aimed at fortifying Nigeria's digital defenses, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has issued a directive mandating financial institutions to enact a cybersecurity levy. This levy, amounting to 0.5% of the value of all electronic transactions,… pic.twitter.com/lBef78ApqX
— Ndubuisi Ekekwe (@ndekekwe) May 7, 2024
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