Cash Scarcity: NLC, CBN Meet In Abuja

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on Thursday met at the Labour House in Abuja.

This is coming hours after the leadership of NLC threatened to shut down all the branches of the CBN across the country over cash scarcity.

Joe Ajaero had advised workers to stockpile food items as the industrial dispute with the CBN will be total.

The decision of the NLC to ground the activities of the apex bank led to the impromptu meeting which started at about 5 pm on Thursday.

The two-man delegation made up of the CBN Deputy Governor in charge of operations and the Deputy Governor in charge of Economic Policy, told the NLC President that about two billion naira was pushed out on Thursday in a bid to address the hardship.

A source close to the meeting that spoke with Vanguard said the CBN promised to make sure that the scarcity of naira notes will end soon.

The source said, “They said the money they pushed out today is equivalent to the whole money pushed out within the week. They also promised to work day and night starting from this night to ensure that there is enough money in the banks. () ”

He noted that the CBN during the meeting denied the claims that it was printing money out of the country.

The source denied the allegation that the old naira notes have been burnt, assuring that there will be a remarkable improvement in a few days to come.

It was gathered that the NLC President, Comrade Ajaero told the CBN delegation that he was not interested in how much that was pushed out, but only interested in seeing that workers and other Nigerians collect their money in banks without stress.

The source added, “The President told them that it does not bother us how much they pushed out, our concern is to see that this hardship comes to a stop.

“He also told them that they should work day and night to solve the problem and will depend on the feedback from the average Nigerians who go to the banks to make withdrawals and whether there is improvement before Wednesday next week NLC planned to picket the apex bank.”

The NLC President, Ajaero who confirmed the meeting said, “We will only know that they are serious when we see improvement.”