Cash Scarcity: NLC won’t stage protest again — FG 

The Federal Government said it has arrested the threat to protest the scarcity of naira notes by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).

This was revealed by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, on Tuesday March 28 while speaking at the weekly Ministerial Briefing at the State House, Abuja.

The Informant247 earlier reported that the NLC has ordered all workers in the public sector to go on strike beginning from Wednesday March 29.

This was revealed by the president of the Congress, Joe Ajaero, in a media briefing at Labour House in Abuja on Wednesday March 22, 2023.

He also ordered that affiliate unions which constitute the NLC to be on standby for picketing exercise across all CBN’s branches in the country.

He said the directive came following the end of 1 week ultimatum given to the CBN to make money (cash) available for the people.

But Ngige claimed that his ministry has enabled peace between the NLC and the CBN — which had done what’s needed to resolve the issue of naira scarcity.

In the company of the minister were the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, and other senior functionaries of the Ministry.

He said the matter before the ministry and the labour union was not about the protest any more.

“Now they have all answered our calls because we are the Chief Conciliators. In my opening remark I said I’ve noticed that there’s already a dialogue going on and there’s also implementation and the Nigerian Labour Congress agreed that there was some thawing at the surface of the icing that was there.

“They said they will call up their National Executive Council meeting because the initial decision to give that ultimatum was given by this same Council. Members of the Council reside in the states and in the local governments, so that they will come up today, which is Tuesday, the 28th, to review the situation because much as it is, the important thing is that we have emphasised to them that we have apprehended this dispute.

“By Section 7:8 of Trade Dispute Act, once the Minister apprehends and starts conciliation on it, you maintain status quo ante bellum. So they have gone back now to review the situation. If they’re not satisfied with what they’re see, they will come back to me and I’ll invite the CBN again.

“But for now, the issue of discussion is no longer strike, the issue of discussion is implementation and how far it’s gone and how far it affects Nigerian workers and the general population.

“So that is it, the final decision will be done today by NEC and they will then do a resolution, of course, inform me and CBN what their resolution is. But like I said, we have apprehended and we are now conciliating,” he assured.

The spokesperson of the apex bank, Isa Abdulmumin on Friday March 24 said the CBN has forwarded substantial amount of, money in various denominations to commercial banks across the federation to ease circulation of naira notes to their respective customers.

He further said the apex bank has ordered the commercial banks to fill up their automated teller machines (ATMs) and also proceed with 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,” the statement reads.

The spokesperson said the CBN boss, Godwin Emefiele would personally lead monitoring teams to supervise the level of compliance in various commercial banks across the country.

He implored members of the public to remain calm as the cash scarcity would soon become a thing of the past.

The CBN had earlier declared its readiness to flood commercial banks with more old N1000 and N500 notes.

Sources within the apex bank revealed that the head offices of the commercial banks had been communicated to collect the old notes earlier forwarded to the CBN.

“Banks have been instructed to collect the old naira notes they deposited in the CBN. Before the end of the week, the country would be awash with naira notes,” the source said.

It was gathered that the old naira may be sent to branches of the commercial banks today.

This came at the moment which the Nigerian Labour Congress (Congress) NLC ordered its members to embark on strike beginning from Wednesday March 29.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has ordered all workers in the public sector to go on strike beginning from Wednesday March 29.