The Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) has strongly rejected the proposed imposition of a 0.5% cyber security levy on every electronic transaction in the Nigerian banking system by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). 

The Group maintained that the levy, which is expected to be effective within the next two weeks, exemplified the federal government's lack of compassion and empathy to the plight of Nigerians in the face of the current economic hardship.

The Northern Group while reacting to the new policy by the Central Bank of Nigeria in a statement signed and issued in Abuja by its National Coordinator, Comrade Jamilu Aliyu Charanchi, described the move as a crass heartlessness that is a sequel to fuel subsidy removal, which now made fuel above N1000 per liter and the electricity tariff abrupt soaring.

It added that the tax is tantamount to another daily-light extortion in the offing by the government that came to being through democratic processes saying the policy is totally unacceptable.

The Northern Group viewed that additional charge as completely unjustifiable as Nigerians are already being fleeced through collection of stamp duty, transfer fee, VAT, and SMS charges in the Nigerian banking sector. 

While it agreed that securing the cyber space is paramount, it posited that such could only be justified as a corollary to the stabilization of the economy and improvement of the standard of living of Nigerians. 

Consequently, the CNG demanded that the CBN immediately reverse this draconian and unilateral decision that unjustifiably imposes extra burden on the masses amidst crunching economic circumstances.

It also called call on the national banker as a matter of principle and transparency, in lieu of further depleting the lean resources of struggling but resilient Nigerians, to provide detailed explanation of all the stamp duty charges accrued from the banks in the last 10 years.