The Coalition of Northern Teams (CNG) has strongly rejected the proposed imposition of 0.5% cybersecurity levy on each digital transaction within the Nigerian banking system by the Central Financial institution of Nigeria (CBN), describing it as extortion.
In a press release by CNG’s Nationwide Coordinator, Comrade Jamilu Charanchi, the group stated the levy, which is anticipated to be efficient throughout the subsequent two weeks, exemplified the Federal Authorities’s lack of compassion and empathy to the plight of Nigerians within the face of the present financial hardship.
“It’s a crass heartlessness that may be a sequel to gasoline subsidy elimination which now made gasoline above N1000 per litre and the electrical energy tariff abrupt hovering that’s tantamount to a different daily-light extortion within the offing by the federal government that got here to being by means of democratic processes,” it stated.
The CNG described the coverage as “completely unacceptable extortion” that’s callously being burdened on Nigerians which are already affected by neoliberal exploitations by means of the federal government’s thoughtlessness to the plight of the downtrodden.
It stated this extra cost is totally unjustifiable as Nigerians are already being fleeced by means of assortment of stamp obligation, switch payment, VAT, and SMS expenses within the Nigerian banking sector.
“Whereas we concur that securing our cyber area is paramount, that may solely be justified as a corollary to the stabilisation of the financial system and enchancment of the usual of residing of Nigerians. Even at that, the present 0.5% p.c is sort of exorbitant in a rustic that has not totally applied N30, 000 minimal wage however has reportedly raised the disposal revenue of the members of the Nationwide Meeting,” it famous.
The CNG recalled that lots of of billions of naira had been collected and pillaged by means of stamp obligation alone in the previous few years with out clear and accountable clarification to Nigerians by the apex financial institution.
“Subsequently, this CBN’s pronouncement, which is able to changing into one other cesspool of corruption, is wholly and roundly rejected, condemned and censured by one and all which have the nation and its folks at coronary heart,” the CNG stated.
The coalition additional lamented that the federal government had already strangled the folks from any derivable profit in healthcare, schooling, gasoline subsidy and agriculture to the purpose that hundreds of thousands of Nigerians can not afford first rate residing in no matter kind.
The CNG noticed that Nigerians are already swimming in “despicable stringent situations” consequent to the federal government’s ill-advised insurance policies which have weakened folks’s buying energy.
Consequently, the CNG demanded that the CBN instantly reverses this draconian and unilateral choice that unjustifiably imposes additional burden on the lots amidst crunching financial circumstances.
Moreover, it known as “on the nationwide banker as a matter of precept and transparency, in lieu of additional depleting the lean assets of struggling however resilient Nigerians, to supply detailed clarification of all of the stamp obligation expenses accrued from the banks within the final 10 years.”
“Subsequently, we counsel the CBN to rethink this ill-conceived coverage and discover various options that don’t additional lengthen Nigerians to the dictates of capitalist establishments,” it added.