… Orders commercial banks to work on Saturdays, Sundays
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been forced to yield to the cry of Nigerians that enough banknotes should be made available at commercial banks across the country.
Following the planned nationwide industrial action and picketing of CBN offices across the country by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) because of the cash crunch, the apex bank had evacuated substantial banknotes from its vaults to commercial banks across the country.
The latest step is to ease the circulation of banknotes of various denominations before Wednesday, 29 March when NLC strike is expected to commence.
For effective circulation of the banknotes, the apex bank had directed that commercial banks open for operations on Saturdays and Sundays.
Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department, CBN, Dr. Isa AbdulMumin disclosed this today Friday.
According to him, substantial amount of money in various denominations had been delivered to commercial banks for onward circulation to their customers.
AbdulMumin added that CBN had directed all commercial banks to load their Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) as well as conduct physical operations in the banking halls through the weekends.
The acting Director further hinted that the apex bank governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, would personally lead teams to monitor level of compliance by the banks in various locations across the country.
It could be recalled that the CBN mopped up N2. 3trillion out of the N3. 9trillion in circulation last month.