The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has directed all Nigerian banks to deduct stamp duty on certain transactions that require duty payments such as contracts and legal mortgages.
A notice from Access Bank to its customers said a 0.375% charge would be applied to loans backed by legal mortgage, shares, debentures, or bonds.
It said, “In compliance to this directive, we have taken measures to streamline the process to make transactions more convenient for you.
“To this end, a stamp duty charge of 0.375% will be applied to loans backed by legal mortgage, shares, debentures, or bonds. The charge will be applied on the value of the Legal Mortgage, Shares, Debentures or Bonds and remitted to the Federal Inland Revenue Services.
“However, all previously approved loans will remain unchanged and should be repaid in full as per the agreed terms and conditions.”
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had directed deposit money banks to start charging 0.5% cybersecurity levy on transactions.
This was contained in a circular dated May 6, 2024 by the apex bank to all commercial, merchant, non-interest and payment service banks as well as mobile money operators and payment service providers.
“Following the enactment of the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) (amendment) Act 2024 and pursuant to the provision of Section 44 (2) (a) of the Act, ‘a levy of 0.5% (0.005) equivalent to a half percent of all electronic transactions value by the business specified in the Second Schedule of the Act’, is to be remitted to the National Cybersecurity Fund (NCF), which shall be administered by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA),” the circular partly read.
The apex bank said that the implementation of the levy would start two weeks from the date of the circular.
“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’.
“Deductions shall commence within two weeks from the date of this circular for all financial institutions and the monthly remittance of the levies collected in bulk to the NCF account domiciled at the CBN by the fifth business day of every subsequent month,” the circular added.
Exempted from the levy 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.
Also exempted from the levy were inter-branch transfers within a bank, cheque clearing and settlements, Letters of Credits, Banks’ recapitalisation-related funding only bulk funds movement from collection accounts, savings and deposits including transactions involving long-term investments, among others.
