On Thursday, the Central Bank of Nigeria released N20 billion of old naira notes to Deposit Money Banks as the apex bank moves to ease the cash crunch in the country.
Several weeks after the Supreme Court judgement that faulted the naira designing policy of the federal government and ordered the recirculation of old N200, N500 and N1000 notes, the cash crunch has continued to bite unabatedly because the CBN was reluctant to re-issue the old notes in its possession.
However, following a threat of picketing by the Nigeria Labour Congress, the CBN decided to disburse money to banks for recirculation.
Iwitnesslive learnt that the process began on Thursday and the apex bank pushed out N20 billion which banks picked up at his offices across the country.
In the Thursday allocation, the CBN Lagos got N4 billion while banks in Abuja got N2 billion.
Sources said the CBN will continue to push more notes into the system and the cash crisis is expected to ease up completely in the next two weeks.
The National President, the Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions, Mr Olusoji Oluwole, said, “Until recently, the volume of the old currency released to banks has been minimal. This coupled with panic withdrawal by customers, and the restriction of daily withdrawal limits by the CBN has caused continued rationing. However, with the announcement yesterday by the CBN to pump more cash into the system, we hope the pressure will ease by next week if the CBN keeps to this promise.”
