CBN speaks on evacuation of banknotes to commercial banks, orders weekend operation

The Central Bank of Nigeria on Friday confirmed the evacuation of banknotes from its vaults to commercial banks across the country.

The bank also directed all commercial banks to open for operation on Saturdays and Sundays.

A statement by the acting spokesperson of the CBN, Isa AbdulMumin, said the move is part of a coordinated effort to ease the circulation of banknotes of various denominations.

Despite its earlier directive to banks to dispense and receive the old N200, N500, and N1000 notes, Nigerians continued to suffer from the cash crunch that has frustrated economic activities for over two months.

Bank operations have been reduced to just deposits and other customer-related issues as officials complain of cash scarcity while customers lament the hardship caused by the cash crunch.

On Friday, the apex bank said that a substantial amount of money, in various denominations, had been received by the commercial banks for onward circulation to their respective customers.

According to Mr AbdulMumin, 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.

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He added that the Governor of the 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.”

The CBN, therefore, urged Nigerians to be patient as the injection of more banknotes into circulation would ease the hardship being faced by Nigerian