Commercial banks have been directed to open for operation on Saturdays and Sundays as part of a coordinated effort to ease circulation of Naira of all denominations.
The directive, which was announced on Friday by the Acting Director of Corporate Communications at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr. Isa AbdulMumin, came as the apex bank confirmed the evacuation of banknotes from its vaults to commercial banks across the country.
AbdulMumin stated 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 said, adding that the CBN Governor, Mr 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.
