Just in: NLC strike may go ahead Wednesday as banks still ration cash
Contrary to earlier hopes and speculations that cash crunch may begin to abate at least from Sunday, checks across major cities especially in Lagos, Abuja and Onitsha showed that rather than giving to Nigerians the approved daily limit of naira, many banks still resort to rationing.
Some of the banks (names withheld) are giving their customers only N10,000 daily and N3,000 to their non-customers.
Nevertheless, the second reason for the strike which has been the endless hike in fuel prices upon subsidy regime has not been resolved by the government as the price of fuel across the federation remains higher than the approved pump price of N179.
Still on the naira scarcity, not all the banks heeded to the Saturday and Sunday opening as directed by the apex bank late last week following the reassurance given by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) to begin nationwide strike on Wednesday this week.
Business Hilights recalls that shortly after the announcement in Abuja, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced the evacuation of banknotes from its vaults to commercial banks across the country as part of a coordinated effort to ease the circulation of banknotes of various denominations.
The CBN has also directed all commercial banks to open for operation on Saturdays and Sundays.
The Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department of the CBN, Dr. Isa AbdulMumin, disclosed this in Abuja on Friday, stating 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 him, 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, adding that the Governor of the 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.
Whereas Emefiele had earlier rendered open apology over the cash crunch begin suffered by Nigerians, many industry observers say the CBN is not telling Nigerians the real truth on making cash available and concluded that with the observed insincerity, the NLC strike may go ahead if by Tuesday, there is no appreciable cash availability.
