By Uche Amunike
The federal government has confirmed that the cybersecurity levy earlier announced by the Central Bank of Nigeria, has been suspended in order to allow the policy to be reviewed more closely.
Speaking, at the end of the two day meeting of the Federal Executive Council, presided over by President Bola Tinubu at the Aso Rock Villa, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, disclosed these to State House correspondents.
Hear him: ‘The cybersecurity levy has been suspended. It is undergoing review. It has been put on hold for now,’ he stated.
Recall that Sunday Punch had earlier published that the president already asked for the policy to be reviewed.
The apex bank of Nigeria issued the directive to every bank and financial institution, where it mandated them to implement the cybersecurity levy on every electronic banking transaction. The cybersecurity levy, which was set at 0.5% of the value of every electronic transaction was introduced in response to the rising concerns over cyber threats and follows the guidelines of the recently enacted cybercrime (prohibition, prevention, etc (Amendment Act) 2024.
According to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), it was expedient to take that measure, as it is crucial for enhancing the Security framework of financial operations across the country. Its presentation, however, garnered criticism from businesses and the public with the fear that it might worsen the already dwindling economic situation in the country.
The Minister of Communication, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, also addressed the State House correspondents, informing them that the Federal Executive Council approved two critical projects for the digital economy, and technological startup ecosystem.
He stated that the first project involved creating a special purpose vehicle, like a public-private partnership that will deploy 90,000 km of fiber optic cable across Nigeria, explaining that it will increase the country’s total fiber optic to 125,000km, making it the third longest terrestrial fiber optic cable in Africa.
He stated the one of the objectives of the project is to address the current underutilization of Nigeria’s, eight submarine cables, which have only been used for about 10%, stressing that the deployment of additional fiber optic cables is believed to be able to improve Internet quality and reduce prices by about 60%. He maintained that it is an investment that is expected to contribute to a 1.5% growth in Nigeria’s GDP in the next four years.
Tijani also disclosed that a second project involving the conversion of the Nigerian property in San Francisco, USA into a Nigerian startup house, which, according to him, would provide a hub for Nigerian technologies, startups to assess funding and investors in the San Francisco Bay area, and Silicon Valley, which are known to universally provide sources of startup ecosystem funding.
He noted that’s about $1.3 billion was invested in the area by investors, technology startup in Nigeria with the major goal of increasing and improving foreign direct investment in technology startups from the region.
