The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has concluded plans to release all N200, N500 and N1,000 notes in its custody to commercial banks.
According to information, the Nigeria Labour (NLC) ordered all workers to protest the present cash shortage at all Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) offices across the country, beginning from next week.
The directive was given by the NLC President, Joe Ajaero, at a press conference held on Wednesday at the Labour House in Abuja.
He explained that it had become necessary after the one-week deadline for the apex bank to provide cash to Nigerians elapsed.
This newspaper gathered from sources on Thursday that the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, directed commercial banks to begin the disbursement of old N200, N500 and N1,000 notes to members of the public.
This comes on the back of a meeting between Emefiele and Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of banks on Wednesday evening. At the meeting, the CBN boss told them that it would start releasing all old notes in its custody to commercial banks immediately.
“The CBN governor met with bank CEOs this evening virtually. It was a short meeting that lasted for just about 15 minutes.
“The governor said all old N1,000, N500 and N200 notes will be released to commercial banks beginning from Thursday.
“The CBN will start with crisp old notes after which the ones deposited by DMBs will be returned.
“The plan is to flood the economy with cash and ameliorate the challenges Nigerians have been passing through,” one of the bank CEOs who attended the meeting said.