As part of a concerted effort to facilitate the circulation of banknotes of various denominations, the Central Bank of Nigeria on Friday ordered all commercial banks to be open for business on Saturdays and Sundays.
In order to alleviate the hardship that millions of Nigerians are experiencing due to the dearth of the naira, it also confirmed the evacuation of banknotes from its vaults to commercial banks throughout the nation.
As part of its efforts to end the country’s currency shortage, the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, met with bank CEOs on Wednesday. On Thursday, the apex bank started distributing the old naira notes to the banks.
Plans to monitor bank compliance through a team of CBN officials were said to have been finalized in order to ensure proper disbursement of the old notes.
On Thursday, representatives from the CBN met with members of the Nigeria Labour Congress at the Labour House in Abuja regarding the upcoming protest against the shortage of naira notes.
The union announced that it would continue the nationwide strike the following Wednesday until the situation in the country returned to normal. The union, through its president, Joe Ajaero, bemoaned the fact that nothing had changed despite the Supreme Court’s ruling that the old N200, N500, and N1000 notes would remain legal tender until December 31, 2023.
According to a statement signed by the CBN Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department, Isa AbdulMumin, a substantial amount of money, in various denominations, had been received by the commercial banks for onward circulation to their respective customers as well as conduct physical operations in the banking halls through the weekends.
The CBN had directed all banks to load their Automated Teller Machines as well as conduct physical operations in the banking halls through the weekends.
“Branches of commercial banks will operate on Saturdays and Sundays to attend to customers’ cash needs”.
“The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Godwin Emefiele, would personally lead teams to monitor the level of compliance by the banks in various locations across the country,” part of the statement read.
Consequently, some deposit money banks on Friday issued statements informing their customers that they would be open for cash withdrawals and deposits tomorrow and on Sunday.
In separate tweets via their Twitter handles on Friday, Guaranty Trust Bank, Zenith Bank, Stanbic IBTC and Union Bank said their branches would be open from 9am to 4pm today and tomorrow.
