The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has reached out to the leadership of Nigerian Labour Congress ,( NLC) to engage them with a view to shelve the planned Nationwide strike threatened by the NLC.
Specifically the CBN has sent a delegation led by its Deputy Governor, Edward Adamu to lobby the NLC officials, led by Joe Ajaero, 24 hours after making the threat to embark on a Nationwide strike on Wednesday.
In a reaction to the threat, the CBN has opened it’s vaults for the commercial banks to take cash.
The apex bank also directed the commercial banks to begin Saturday and Sunday operations to ensure swift circulation of the currency.
The Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department of the CBN, Dr. Isa AbdulMumin, disclosed that a substantial amount of money, in various denominations, had been received by the commercial banks for onward circulation to their respective customers.
He said 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.
“Branches of commercial banks will operate on Saturdays and Sundays to attend to customers’ cash needs,” he noted.
AbdulMumin said that the Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, would personally lead teams to monitor the level of compliance by the banks in various locations across the country.
He, therefore, urged Nigerians to be patient, as the current situation would ease soon with the injection of more banknotes into circulation.
Meanwhile, the NLC has declared that there is no going back on its decision to picket the CBN by Wednesday.