The Central Bank of Nigeria has received a warning from the Nigeria Labour Congress that it must provide enough cash within two weeks or face picketing of its offices.
Adewale Adeyanju, vice president of the Nigeria Labour Congress, revealed that the congress was keeping an eye on the CBN’s cash supply to the commercial banks, noting that the current cash flow was not exactly what was anticipated.
He did, however, concede that things were better than they had been over the previous few weeks.
A few weeks ago, the NLC announced plans to picket CBN state offices across the country due to the shortage of naira notes, which had made the situation in the nation worse.
The planned strike and stay-at-home action that was set to start on March 29 was suspended by organized labor after a flurry of meetings between the CBN authorities and the NLC and the Trade Union Congress and after assurances that the cash crisis would be addressed.
After their National Executive Council meetings in Abuja, the presidents of the NLC, Joe Ajaero, and the TUC, Festus Osifo, told journalists that their unions would wait two weeks before deciding on their next course of action.
However, giving an update in a Monday interview with Punch, Adeyanju said that the NLC would get together to review the ultimatum sent to the CBN and decide how to proceed.
We’ve given them two weeks, he said. You are aware that the two weeks we specified for the CBN to ensure that all Nigerians received naira have not yet passed. The NLC will therefore review it at our meeting because it always evaluates its own actions.
“If we are satisfied with the CBN cash flow, we will know what action to take. Although I think it is better than before, nobody is complaining now and that is why additional two weeks were given to CBN to review all their past activities so that money can be dispensed to Nigerians.
“So the threat for the strike is suspended for now until when the two weeks given to CBN elapses. If they cannot meet up and Nigerians are still agitating that the naira is not properly dispensed, congress will review its activities and get back to Nigerians.
“The cash flow is not 100 per cent as expected but it has reduced when compared to when someone will stay in the bank for days before you can get N5000. So let us give them another benefit as the NLC has directed. It has reduced tremendously. We have yet to fix a date for the meeting.”
Speaking further, Adeyanju revealed that the unions would review their ultimatum if the cash scarcity failed to improve as expected.
“The NLC has its own way of conducting its activities. We gave them two weeks and suspended the planned strike to make sure the naira is being circulated to all Nigerians.
“When the deadline elapses and we find out that they did not meet up to the required standard, we are going to review our ultimatum. The two weeks ultimatum is still in place,” he stated.
Cc: Punch
