Central Bank of Nigeria has directed all commercial banks to open for operation on Saturdays and Sundays, as part of a coordinated effort to ease the circulation of banknotes of various denominations.
The apex bank also confirmed the evacuation of banknotes from its vaults to commercial banks across the country.
This latest development was disclosed in a statement signed by CBN Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department, Isa AbdulMumin, in Abuja, on Friday afternoon.
The statement noted that a substantial amount of money, in various denominations, had been received by commercial banks, for onward circulation to their respective customers, even as it prevailed on banks, to conduct physical operations in banking halls through the weekends.
Excerpts of the statement read: “The CBN has 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 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,” it stressed.
The authorities have stepped up efforts to end the biting currency scarcity that has inflicted pain on millions of bank customers nationwide, after a Supreme Court ruling, and a proposed protest by Nigeria Labour Congress, scheduled for next week.
Banker’s committee meeting was concluded on Friday and some urgent actions needed to be taken to reduce the suffering of the public. These are:
1. All banks have been provided adequate cash today
2. Banks must be at CBN tomorrow to request more cash
3. All ATMs must be dispensed from tomorrow. Monitoring Teams will go round
4. All Tellers must be issuing cash to customers as well in banking halls
5. Any ATM found not operational will attract severe penalties on the bank
6. All banks must open this weekend (Saturday and. Sunday 9:00 am to 4:00 pm to attend to cash withdrawals by customers
7. Charges on customers who withdraw above the threshold limit must be recovered. N500,000 and N5m
Further, the Executives of CBN will be carrying out mystery shopping at random branches of banks to ascertain if they are opened and dispensed.
It is imperative we thus ensure we are not caught in violation.
