Commercial banks in the country have been instructed to collect the old Naira notes they deposited in Central Bank of (CBN) with a view to ending the current naira scarcity.
A source at the CBN said with this development, the country would be awash and flooded with Naira notes before the end of the week.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) had earlier threatened that it was set to shut down CBN offices nationwide over inability of the apex bank to make banknotes available for Nigerians.
The protest which is expected to start next week, is coming at the expiration of the seven-day ultimatum given to the federal government, the CBN and commercial banks in Nigeria to end the current cash crunch.
NLC national president, Comrade Joe Ajaero told journalists yesterday at a briefing in Abuja that the decision was necessary after the ultimatum issued last week came to an end yesterday.
The organised labour also directed all the affiliate unions to commence the mobilisation to ensure total compliance with the proposed shutdown of the apex bank.
Ajaero, who urged Nigerians to bear with the labour centre over the proposed industrial action, noted that the decision was meant to reduce their sufferings occasioned by the current cash crunch.
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He told workers to equally observe sit-at – home from Wednesday next week and also stockpile foodstuffs that would take them as the industrial action intends to last.
Ajaero said, “Last week, we gave an ultimatum for the review of the cash crunch bedeviling the country, but we have discovered to our dismay that as at this moment not much effort has been made to ameliorate the situation, the government is still foot dragging on these issues we raised.
Based on this, we met again this morning to review our position and resolved that by Wednesday next week, all CBN branches will be picketed”.
“Workers are directed to stay at home too because people cannot eat, workers can no longer go to the office, we have been pushed to the wall, we have decided to take our destiny in our hands, we have mobilised our workers for this exercise,” he said.
