*Confirms evacuation of cash to commercial banks
*Directs banks to open branches on Saturdays, Sundays
James Emejo in Abuja
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele will personally lead the apex bank’s team to monitor the level of compliance by the banks in various locations across the country, as the central bank yesterday confirmed the evacuation of banknotes from its vaults to commercial banks.
The move is part of a coordinated effort to ease the circulation of banknotes of various denominations across the country.
The CBN’s acting Director, Corporate Communications Department, Dr. Isa AbdulMumin, who disclosed this in a statement, added that the bank had also directed all commercial banks to open for operation on Saturdays and Sundays.
He said a substantial amount of money, in various denominations, had been received by the commercial banks for onward circulation to their respective customers.
AbdulMumin added that the CBN had directed all banks to load their Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), as well as conduct physical operations in the banking halls through the weekends.
He said, “Branches of commercial banks will operate on Saturdays and Sundays to attend to customers’ cash needs.”
The CBN director urged Nigerians to be patient as the current situation would ease soon with the injection of more banknotes into circulation.
This week, the CBN stepped up efforts to end the biting currency scarcity that has inflicted pain on millions of bank customers nationwide, following a Supreme Court ruling, and a proposed protest by Nigeria Labour Congress, scheduled for next week.
It directed DMBs to pick old N1,000, N500 and N200 notes at its offices across the country for onward disbursements to customers, following a meeting between the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, and bank chief executive officers on Wednesday.
Also, delegates from the CBN met with Nigeria Labour Congress on Thursday to prevent the planned protest by the union over the scarcity of Naira notes in the country.
The meeting, which took place at the Labour House in Abuja, was attended by the NLC President, Joe Ajaero, and a deputy governor of the CBN.
