As part of a coordinated effort to facilitate the circulation of banknotes of various denominations, the Central Bank of Nigeria has directed all commercial banks to open for business on Saturdays and Sundays.
The country’s top bank also acknowledged that banknotes had been moved out of its vaults and into commercial banks all over the nation.
This most recent development was announced in a statement released on Friday afternoon in Abuja and signed by Isa AbdulMumin, Acting Director of the CBN’s Corporate Communications Department.
According to the statement, commercial banks had received a sizeable sum of money in a variety of denominations for distribution to their respective customers, even though banks were still required to carry out physical operations in banking halls on the weekends.
A quote from the statement reads as follows: “The CBN has directed all banks to load their ATSs and conduct physical operations in the banking halls on weekends.
Commercial bank branches will be open on Saturdays and Sundays to help customers with their cash needs.
It emphasized that “Mr. Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, would personally lead teams to monitor the level of compliance by the banks in various locations throughout the country.”
As a result, the bank urged Nigerians to be patient, as the current situation would soon improve with the introduction of new banknotes into circulation.
Following a Supreme Court decision and the Nigeria Labour Congress’ proposed protest, which is scheduled for next week, authorities have reportedly increased efforts to end the cruel currency shortage that has caused pain to millions of bank customers nationwide.
