CBN Directs DMBs to Dishonour Non-electronic Payment of Salaries, Others

• CBN Directs DMBs to Dishonour Non-electronic Payment of Salaries, Others

Payment of salaries, pensions, and taxes of public and private companies must be done through approved payment platforms, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) new directive.

The directive contained in the revised Regulation on Electronic Payments and Collections for Public and Private Sectors, instructed Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) to dishonour payment instructions of salaries, pensions, and taxes of public and private businesses on non-approved electronic platforms.

The directive reads, “Further to the implementation of the guideline on end-to-end electronic payment of salaries, pensions, suppliers and taxes by all public and private sector organisations as directed in the CBN Guidelines referenced [CBN/BPS/PSV/GEN/014/05], DMBs are to dishonour payment instructions for all forms of salaries, pensions, suppliers and taxes not transmitted on a CBN approved straight through electronic payment and collection platform issued by organisations with more than 20 employees.

“This means payment instructions and associated schedules are no longer to be transmitted to DMBs through unsecured channels, such as paper-based mandates, flash drives, compact discs (CDs), email attachments, etc by qualifying public and private sector organisations.”

The new directive is a revision of the Guidelines on Electronic Payment of Salaries, Pensions, Suppliers and Taxes in Nigeria (2014) and was revised to guide the end-to-end electronic payment of salaries, pensions and other remittances, suppliers and revenue collections in Nigeria.

According to the CBN, the “regulation is to fully align with the core objectives of the National Payments System Vision 2020 (PSV2020) to ensure the availability of safe, effective and efficient mechanisms for conveniently making and receiving all types of payments from any location and at any time, through multiple electronic channels.”

The central bank said this would cut the time taken to process transactions, costs of transactions, reduce revenue leakages and provide reliable audit trails.